The Food Project: Youth. Food. Community.

GREAT NEWS! We are seeing tremendous progress on the MA Local Food Action plan and in funding that provides a 100 percent match for each SNAP dollar spent on eligible fruits and vegetables purchased at farmers markets, farm stands, mobile markets, and CSA programs in Massachusetts. The Food Project played a key role at our farmers markets in the early creation and development of SNAP matching programs starting in 2006, and we need YOUR help to realize our vision of a state-wide SNAP--matching program.

Rep. Paul Schmid, from Westport, has sponsored an amendment to the House budget for $1.48 million to support Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive (FINI) project costs. He needs co-sponsors to help support this bill and insure that it gets funded.

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On April 13th, The House Ways & Means Committee released its draft budget yesterday afternoon and it did not include funding for the Massachusetts Food Trust Program. That doesn’t mean we can’t get funding.  Representative Dan Donahue is filing an Amendment to include funding for the MA Food Trust in the budget, we need you to contact your Representative(s) and ask them to join Rep. Donahue in co-sponsoring this amendment.

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A Root Crew member talks about her experience leading Growing Together, which brings together youth groups in Lynn and the surrounding communities for social and food system change.

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A reflection on the release of the draft Massachusetts Food System Plan

By Lucy Sweeney, Development Officer for Individual Giving & Events

Late last month, I joined fellow Food Project staff to attend Food Day at the State House. The room was bustling with a crowd of policy makers, nonprofit leaders, farmers, and food distributors who gathered for the public release of Massachusetts’ draft Food Systems Plan—the commonwealth’s first food plan in 40 years.

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Why we need a National Food Policy, by James Harrison, Acting Director of The Food Project

I had the opportunity to hear Rep. Chellie Pingree from Maine speak about food policy at the Growing Power Conference, ”Urban & Small Farms: “Building a Fair Food Economy to Grow Healthy People” in November which I attended with The Food Project’s Root Crew members Debbie J. and Dom N. During her keynote presentation, Congresswoman Pingree shared this infographic.

This illustration is an amazingly simple and clear depiction of the profound disconnect between what we know to be true about the importance of healthy food vs. what our government is currently prioritizing and funding. The costs of this failure and disconnect are staggering and are paid for with the health of the land and in human lives.     

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