Sustainable Nutrition Programs: A Local, Affordable, Healthy Food Agenda for the Farm Bill

1
Sustainable Nutrition Programs A Local,
Affordable, Healthy Food Agenda for the Farm Bill
2
Building Local, Affordable Healthy Food Policy

• Build connections between public health and
  environmental goals, small farmers and local food
  systems
• Support small, sustainable farms and bring
  healthy, affordable food access to low-income
  urban and rural communities

• Use federal policy to
• Support communities trying to change their food
  system
• Support farm to school programs
• Rebuild local food systems to connect farmers and
  markets

3
How can we put healthy, affordable, local food on
the federal policy agenda?

• I - Farm Bill - 2007-08
• Title IV- Nutrition
• Other Titles - Horticulture Organic
  Agriculture, Miscellaneous, Rural Dev.
• II - Child Nutrition Reauthorization - 2009
• School lunch and breakfast
• Summer meals, child and adult care meals
• WIC (Women, Infants and Children)
• Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program

4
Nutrition Title

• Food Stamps, TEFAP- (The Emergency Food
  Assistance Program), surplus commodity food
  programs
• Community Food Projects grant program
• Geographic Preference for School Meals language
• Who are the Players?
• House and Senate Agriculture Committees
• Nutrition Subcommittees
• Anti-Hunger, nutrition and public
• health advocacy groups
• Food industry

5

• What happened in 2008 Farm Bill Nutrition Title?
• Overall Major effort to increase funding for
  food stamps, change eligibility requirements and
  update food stamp benefits and deductions for
  inflation, increase funding for TEFAP
• Result Nutrition Title Increased by over 3
  billion over 5 years
• Healthy, Affordable, Local Food
• New coalitions and working groups formed
• Result Community Food Projects kept 5 mill per
  year mandatory funding
• Result Geographic Preferences New language
  allows schools the flexibility to specify local
  as a bid requirement in purchasing foods for
  school meals with school meal program funds.

6

• Local Food Systems (outside of Nutrition Title)
• Healthy Food Enterprise Development Program
• Grants and technical assistance to support
  development of enterprises to distribute and
  market healthy, locally produced foods to
  underserved areas
• Several million dollars in annual funding
• Support for local food distribution and marketing
  in areas classified as rural-- in Rural
  Business Industry Loan/Guarantee Program
• Sets aside 5 (approximately 50 million/year)
  from Rural BI program
• Defines locally or regionally produced food
• New Program

7
Other Programs

• Increased funding for
• Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program
  (vouchers)
• Farmers Market Promotion Program
• Funding for EBT machines at Farmers Markets
• Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program
• New federal studies of food deserts and of
  obesity and health in food stamp recipients

8
Child Nutrition Reauthorization- 2009

• What are the child nutrition programs?
• School Lunch, breakfast, summer meals, child and
  adult care feeding programs
• WIC, and WIC Farmers Market Vouchers
• Expires on Sept 30, 2009
• Public Comment Period ended in October 2008
• Organizations who will be doing advocacy
• School Nutrition Association, National Alliance
  for Nutrition and Activity, Child Nutrition
  Forum, Community Food Security Coalition/Farm-to-S
  chool Network, Society for Nutrition Education,
  anti-hunger and child welfare advocacy groups

9
Opportunities in Child Nutrition Reauthorization

• Increase reimbursement rate for school meals, to
  cover increased food costs
• Nutritional standards for school meals
• Mandatory money for Farm-to-cafeteria program
  (Section 122)
• Access to Local Foods and School Gardens Program
  authorized up to 100,000 for schools to start
  farm-to-cafeteria programs but program needs to
  be funded
• Encourage child and adult feeding programs and
  schools in fresh fruit and vegetable program to
  purchase locally when possible
• Support farm-to-school, agriculture and local
  foods approaches in school nutrition education

10
What Can I Do?

• Find out --
• Who is your Representative in Congress?
• Is your Rep or Senator on any relevant committees
  or subcommittees?
• House Education and Labor Committee
• Senate Agriculture Committee
• Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee
• Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.
  Speak with
• your Representative or Senator, their staff
• Are there farm-to-school programs in your area?
  How about a food policy council?
• Other city or state level groups
• Ie New York Food Systems Group in NYC

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Get Involved

• Email lists
• COMFOOD
• Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
• Media- Tuv Haaretz Newsletter, Jewish press,
  other press
• Other ideas??
• Invite a Rep or staffer to speak at your
  synagogue or be involved in your CSA?
• Organize a letter writing project for adults or
  Bar Mitzvah teens?