This article first appeared in the Traverse City Record-Eagle Agriculture Forum.

For several years, I have been part of a collective effort to provide more access to healthy food to those in our community who need it most. This on-the-ground effort helps meet the immediate needs of our food insecure neighbors, but we must also advocate for policy changes at the state and federal levels of government to support systemic changes that address food insecurity. There’s an opportunity to do that now.

The Northwest Food Coalition, in collaboration with Food Rescue — a program of Goodwill Northern Michigan — and Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities provides high quality, nutritious food grown by local farmers to vulnerable populations. To pay for the food, the coalition solicits donations and grant funds and offers farmers a fair market price. This food is then distributed to food insecure people served by the coalition’s network of food pantries, meal sites and baby pantries in a six-county region. The efforts increase the amount of healthy food available in pantries and expand economic investment in the regional farm economy.

For the past year, purchases have been funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA), which was initiated in response to the national agriculture supply chain disruptions that occurred during the pandemic. The USDA awarded grants to state and tribal governments to procure local foods for distribution to nearby feeding programs. The Grand Traverse Band of Odawa and Chippewa Indians generously shared USDA funds with the coalition. The band plays a critical role in the regional food system by supporting the coalition’s local purchases and by growing and distributing food to the GTB community.

The economic impact of the federal grants has been significant. A June 2023 report estimates that the $691 million in LFPA purchases from local farms has generated an estimated $1.5 billion in local economic impact nationally. In our region, the Northwest Food Coalition will purchase more than $550,000 of food directly from farms — a remarkable investment.

Now there is an opportunity for this type of funding to become a permanent part of the Farm Bill. The Expanding Access To (EAT) Local Foods Act would create a permanent grant program for state and tribal governments to procure local foods for distribution to nearby feeding programs. The EAT Local Foods Act program would help small local producers access new market opportunities, strengthen domestic agriculture supply chain resilience and combat food insecurity. Priority would be given to food purchases from small, beginning or underserved producers, and program funds could also be used for technical assistance, such as food safety training or other efforts to grow the local agriculture value chain.

Please contact your federal representatives and urge them to support the EAT Act. Doing so will help spread the message that this program is critical to our regional food economy and for fighting food insecurity, which challenges so many of our neighbors. (To send a pre-written letter supporting the EAT Act to your federal legislators, go to groundworkcenter.org/support-eat-act.)

Photo at top by Jeff Smith.

Christina Barkel, Groundwork Food Equity Specialist
christina@groundworkcenter.org