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Issue #37 | Dec 2022
Supporting collective action
toward an equitable, sustainable, resilient, and connected local
food system in Massachusetts.
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Things you can do right now to
support systemic policy change.
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Comment on state environmental justice strategies
MDAR and other state agencies have released their draft environmental justice strategies, “a continuing vision for ensuring that all residents of the Commonwealth can benefit in an equitable and just manner from the laws and policies addressing environmental, energy and climate issues in Massachusetts.” Comments may be submitted through an online form, or at a series of upcoming listening sessions. Details are here. Comments are due by January 27.
Help shape the new governor’s food policy
The next administration is asking for thoughts from Massachusetts residents about issues and policy. Please take a moment and use this form to let Governor-elect Healey and Lieutenant Governor-elect Driscoll know what food system issues you would like them to prioritize, and what your vision is for a sustainable, equitable, and resilient food system.
Provide feedback on the FSIG program
Legislators want to hear from you about how the FSIG program has succeeded and how it could be better. Complete their survey here.
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Highlights of the
Collaborative's work.
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Improved regulations to reduce food waste in MA
Currently, food waste represents 20% of our trash in Massachusetts, and Massachusetts has been a leader in diverting food waste from landfills and incineration, in part through statewide regulations issued by the Mass Department of Environmental Protection. Since 2014, grocery stores, institutions, restaurants, and other businesses that create over one ton of food waste per week must find other ways to dispose of their food waste – including through donating edible food to people in need, or sending food scraps to feed animals, to be composted or to anaerobic digestion facilities.
This ban has had an impact. In 2014, 1,350 businesses were diverting their food waste, increasing to 3,500 in 2021. As a result, in 2016, just over 190,000 tons of food waste were diverted while in 2020, almost 322,000 tons were diverted.
As of November 1, 2022, the threshold for compliance with the diversion program has dropped to half a ton per week. MassDEP estimates that the number of businesses that will be required to divert their organic waste will rise from around 2,000 to around 4,000 businesses, including many public schools. See these links for more information about the ban, a way to estimate how much food waste a business creates, and resources to help businesses divert their waste.
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Sign on to the Campaign for Food Literacy
The Collaborative is leading a campaign to ensure that all students in grades K – 12 have access to food system education in school so they can learn about agriculture, nutrition, food justice, and culinary skills. We have talked with dozens of educators, published a report, and convened a steering committee. We are beginning advocacy to ensure that food literacy is an important part of the school day and that there are funded programs and positions that help schools to integrate these lessons. If your organization supports these goals, please sign on here. For more information, please reach out to Brittany Peats at brittany@mafoodsystem.org.
MA Farming Reinforces Education and Student Health (FRESH), a new grant opportunity for schools, has been released by the MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Among other activities to support more healthy, local food in schools, the grant supports “training educators and other school staff in adding or integrating food system lessons to their curriculum; and infrastructure and programming for curricular and extracurricular activities, such as school gardens, for students to learn about agriculture and the food system.” Schools can apply for $5,000 to $50,000 in funding and the short applications are due January 31, 2023. To learn more, register for Mass Farm to School’s webinar on December 14 at 10am or schedule a coaching session with MFTS staff here.
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Local Food Policy Council Grant Program is now open
MDAR’s Local Food Policy Council Grant Program is now accepting responses through December 14. Local food policy councils can apply for up to $20,000 to conduct a community food assessment, develop a local food action plan, or otherwise improve their operations. For more information, please reach out to Brittany Peats at brittany@mafoodsystem.org.
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Inspiring work being done by some
of our friends in Massachusetts.
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Southcoast Food Policy Council
The Southcoast Food Policy Council has emerged as the region's backbone to eliminate food insecurity and improve policies and systems that strengthen our local food system with an environmentally sustainable lens. They are connected to the local food system and informing larger state and increasingly national conversations. The Council believes that to create a more resilient and equitable regional food system, they need to create a broad, knowledgeable group of citizens who understand food system issues and how the industrial food system negatively impacts public health, the environment, and the local economy, so they have engaged the community in various ways.
They manage monthly meetings of a 24-member Community Advisory Board and 40+ member community working groups. The working groups have identified short- and long-term goals which include: community education campaigns, a regional gleaning program, strengthening networks and infrastructure for a regional food innovation district, and coalition-building in support of equitable food system policies and legislation.
Southcoast Food Policy Council engages individuals with lived experience of food and nutrition insecurity as Food Equity Advisors. Two Advisors participated in the White House Conference on Hunger, and one created and submitted a video to the Conference. Another Advisor engaged in a Farmer's Market/ Supporting HIP day and spoke about her experience with SNAP/HIP in the media and how important it is to fund HIP continuously and two Food Equity Advisors have joined working groups. The Council continues to engage the community through focus groups, which have been held in Fall River, New Bedford, and Wareham. The goals of the meetings are to gather feedback on the Council’s Draft Plan of Action and to foster relationships with individuals and invite them to become Food Equity Advisors.
The Southcoast Food Policy Council also engaged the public through a Candidate Forum, where they invited candidates for state legislative seats to come together to answer questions about their support of the MA Food System.
They also hold a yearly Food Summit to educate and engage people to understand a regional food system. The 2022 Food Summit, in partnership with The Office of Senator Mark Montigny and the UMass Dartmouth Leduc Center for Civic Engagement, centered on The Intersection of Food and Basic Needs: Healthcare, Housing, and Transportation. The virtual event included a keynote speaker who shared what intersections look like in our daily lives and a panel of subject matter experts in healthcare, housing, transportation, and advocacy shared how food is related to their areas of daily needs.
The Southcoast Food Policy Council holds quarterly meetings with the public and will continue to seek ways to invite the community into the work and ensure the region is represented across socio-economic and subject areas of work because one of the primary purposes of a food policy council is to break down silos and collectively work on solutions to build a robust and resilient regional food system.
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Thoughtful insights about
food system issues.
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Grounded and Interconnected in the Pandemic
In the summer of 2021, eight Boston area community-based organizations came together for a community action research project funded by AmeriCorps to assess how these groups had adapted their community organizing and engagement approaches during the COVID pandemic. The final report, Grounded and Interconnected in the Pandemic (in English and Spanish), is based on two group convenings, interviews with staff, and data compiled from each organization.
They found that while community-based organizations faced significant challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, they played a critical role as first responders and drew on their deep networks and connections to coordinate collaborative responses that were literally saving lives. They became a vital bridge between the most vulnerable and government, funders, and larger social service agencies. Because they already had deep networks and relationships of trust in their neighborhoods, they could take a grounded and intersectional approach to solutions. The organizations turned their buildings into food pantries and organized mutual aid networks that helped meet the needs of more than 10,000 families weekly. They also supported thousands of people to access housing assistance, employment opportunities, money for workers who lost income, and Covid testing and vaccines. In addition, they provided language services to overcome the barriers in existing service systems and created new relief funds for constituencies not eligible for public aid.
The groups had to be creative and innovate new ways to engage their communities during the pandemic. While they built capacity to do remote engagement, they also conducted wellness checks over the phone and used social media to counter disinformation about COVID and vaccines. They began to integrate the provision of much-needed resources with engaging people to help one another and engage in collective action — shifting a culture of one-way charity towards one of solidarity, mutuality, and reciprocity. The staff and community members associated with many of the organizations participated in advocacy, specifically for more affordable housing development and stronger tenant protections in Boston, to increase voter turnout, and to ensure their communities were counted during the Census.
Welcome Project with Representative Ayanna Pressley
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Job Posting Sites
Job Listserv
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Upcoming Food System Events
Know of another great source of events or jobs? Let us know!
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The Massachusetts Food System Collaborative envisions a local food system where everyone has access to healthy food, to land to grow food, to good jobs, and to the systems where policy decisions are made. Read more about our vision and our work.
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