Urge Federal lawmakers:
Support the EAT Act,
for farmers and pantry families!
When systems are in place for emergency meal providers like food pantries to purchase food at a fair price from our local farmers, this strengthens our regional food system’s resilience as well as increases the amount of healthy food in pantries.
To help spread this practice across our state and nation, we are asking you to send a letter to federal legislators in support of a newly introduced bill titled “The Expanding Access To (EAT) Local Foods Act,” which would create permanent federal funding for this type of local food purchasing.
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.
We ask you to support the bill because we have witnessed first-hand the positive results of this type of program in northwest Lower Michigan. Groundwork, in partnership with the Northwest Food Coalition and Food Rescue of Goodwill Northern Michigan, coordinates the Farm 2 Neighbor program, which uses a system similar to what the bill proposes. It pays fair prices to farmers while providing fresh, healthy, and locally grown produce to food pantries and meal sites—and it works!
Submit your comment to Michigan's federal senators and house representatives and also senators who sit on the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry (*see list of states with senators on the committee below).
IMPORTANT: Senators and representatives are automatically presented to you based on the ZIP code you enter. If you live in a state without a senator on the committee, the system will return you to the sign-in page and not enable you to send an email.
(*Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Vermont)
Begin by entering your name, email, and address, and click Start Writing.
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