Alexandria Ranked Third Best City For Local Food In U.S.

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Alexandria is well known for its abundance of local restaurants, but a new ranking notes that the city has good access to locally-produced food.

LawnStarter, a lawn care resource, ranked Alexandria third in the U.S. on its Best Cities to Eat Local Food list.

The study evaluated access to different producers such as farm stands, farm markets, bakeries, butcher shops, seafood market and craft breweries. The top 200 U.S. cities were evaluated on 17 metrics related to local food access, convenience and support.

Alexandria's high ranking was helped by having the second most farm markets within 50 miles of the ranked U.S. cities. Northern Virginia has an abundance of farm markets residents can visit on day trips, including Nalls Produce south of Alexandria City in the Franconia area.

In the access category, Alexandria was second. The study evaluated access based on factors like on farm markets within 50 miles, craft breweries per square mile, number of farm stands, and bakeries per square mile.

The city also ranked well in the support category, which factored in the nunber of Slow Food USA local chapters, the presence of a Buy Fresh, Buy Local chapter (Northern Virginia chapter) and agricultural workers per 100,000 residents.

In the convenience category Alexandria ranked 18. The category's factors were urban garden friendliness and local farms offering on-farm pickup and delivery.

Although the study didn't look at restaurants, the study noted spots with locally-sourced foods. Bastille and Virtue Feed & Grain were highlighted, but there are numerous other options throughout the city.

Overall, Alexandria ranked just below Portland, Oregon in first and Baltimore, Maryland in second. Portland topped the list due to a high number of you-pick farms, farm stands, on-farm markets and craft breweries per square mile.

See the full ranking of Best Cities to Eat Local Food here.