With support from the Healthy Eating Research program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, APA’s Planning and Community Health Research Center conducted a multiphase research study to identify and evaluate the development, adoption and implementation of food related goals and policies of local comprehensive plans, including sustainability plans, across the United States; and their impact on local policies, regulations, and standards for the purpose of reducing food access disparities among children, adolescents, and adults, and improving community-based food systems. Different legal, policy, and political frameworks, as well as political and financial capacity of local governments, create challenges for research that compares and contrasts local level plans and planning processes. Despite these challenges, this research provides a better understanding of how and why some local governments have addressed food access and food system issues in the comprehensive or sustainability planning process, and identifies common themes and innovative features for implementing plan policies and achieving plan goals.