Issue #19 | March 2021

This newsletter keeps you informed about the work of the Collaborative and other organizations and institutions toward the goals of the Massachusetts Local Food Action Plan. You can also follow progress on our website, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

In this issue Collaborative Sets Priorities for New Legislative session HIP Lobby Day will be on April 5 Collaborative Proposes FY22 Food Security Budget Advocacy 101 Training Collaborative Issues Report, Recommendations, on Food Security Infrastructure Grant Program Call for Governor to Increase Funding for Ag Grants The Need for a State Farmland Action Plan  Small Parcel Agriculture: Policies for the Changing Face of Massachusetts Agriculture  MA Food Policy Councils Network Update New England Feeding New England Local Food System Responses to COVID Healthy Hampshire’s Amherst Mobile Market Food System Toolkits  Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Resources Food System Articles We've Been Reading

Collaborative Sets Priorities for New Legislative Session

Based on unfinished business from past legislative sessions, conversations with organizations and individuals who participated in last year’s listening sessions that led to Massachusetts’ Local Food System: Perspectives on Resilience and Recovery, and recommendations from the Massachusetts Local Food Action Plan, the Collaborative has determined its priority bills for the new session. The white paper with these bills has been co-signed by more than 80 organizations from all parts of the Commonwealth’s food system. The list of bills includes: An Act regarding a farmland protection and viability action plan (SD.1169/ HD.268) An Act relative to an agricultural healthy incentives program (SD.1179/HD.2939) An Act promoting equity in agriculture (SD.1036/HD.1661) An Act supporting the Commonwealth’s food system (HD.3588) An Act supporting the Commonwealth’s Farmers (SD.1852/ HD.2944) An Act encouraging the donation of food to persons in need (SD.385/ HD.1204) An Act to support infrastructure needs for livestock farmers (SD.1705/HD.4085) For more details about each of these bills, and for information on how to help promote them, see our legislative page. There are many other bills related to the food system that are under consideration this session. The Collaborative is currently in the process of reviewing several dozen that touch on issues from the Plan and that we have heard from stakeholders address issues of concern. As the session progresses, watch our social media for opportunities to learn more about these bills.

HIP Lobby Day will be on April 5

Please join us at noon on April 5th for the 4th annual HIP Lobby Day! We’ll hear from farmers and consumers about what $13 million in this year’s fiscal budget means to them, play some HIP trivia, and make calls to legislators together. Register here for the zoom link.   New HIP Resource A text alert about DTAFinder, the new HIP map for clients, was sent to 200,000 SNAP households at the end of February to alert them that a HIP retailer was open in or near their zip code. This is the first time the Department has alerted SNAP users that a HIP retailer is open near them and is due to the resources the Campaign for HIP Funding helped to secure in the fiscal year 2021 budget.

Collaborative Proposes FY22 Food Security Budget

As the legislature begins to consider the state’s operating budget for fiscal year 2022, the Massachusetts Food System Collaborative has proposed a Food Security Budget, representing a $78 million investment in the Commonwealth’s local food system. The proposal includes funding for the Healthy Incentives Program, the Food Security Infrastructure Grant Program, UMass Extension, and Mass in Motion.   Massachusetts’ local food system has been vital to the response to COVID-19. When the national and global food supply chains failed, local farmers, fishermen, processors, and distributors stepped up to help fill the gaps. When the crisis increased pressure on the emergency food system, food banks, pantries, schools, and other community-based organizations developed and implemented innovative ways to work with local producers, source food, and distribute it to households in need. Those same businesses and organizations are key to a strong, resilient recovery, as well as integral to long term resiliency in the face of other major disruptions, such as climate change. The public health crisis and the economic impact it has caused continue to create instability for families, food businesses, and communities throughout the Commonwealth. By investing in key food security programs, the state will help ensure a smoother and quicker recovery and create long-term resilience of Massachusetts’ food system. Those investments will, in turn, support public health, the local economy, and our natural resources, for many years to come. These budget items are listed here, and in the Collaborative’s FY22 budget letter to legislators.

Advocacy 101 Training

For the local food system to be more sustainable, equitable, and resilient, stakeholders need to know how to effectively create change in state policies and funding priorities. To help build food system stakeholders’ skills to do so, the Collaborative held an advocacy training on March 19. The training covered the basics of what public policy is, why it is important to pay attention to, how a bill becomes a law, how the state’s operating and capital budget processes run, and the steps to start an advocacy campaign.  Attendees learned that there are many opportunities to participate and advocate during state policy processes. Some attendees were nervous about reaching out to legislators, and were reminded that public officials work for their constituents and need to hear from members of their community to know what is needed so they can make educated policy choices.  Attendees found the training useful, informative, and clear about how to affect policy change at the state level. The recording is available on our youtube channel, and a number of advocacy resources are available on our website, including Cultivating Good Food Policy, a guide to advocacy campaigns for food system stakeholders.  If you’d be interested in having the Collaborative do a similar training at your organizations’ meetings, targeting those sessions to your particular issues, please contact Becca Miller at rebecca@mafoodsystem.org. The Collaborative will offer a second advocacy training session later this summer.

Collaborative Issues Report, Recommendations, on Food Security Infrastructure Grant Program

In response to the COVID-19 crisis, Massachusetts launched the Food Security Infrastructure Grant Program (FSIG), seeking funding proposals for “Projects to ensure that individuals and families throughout the Commonwealth have access to food, with a special focus on food that is produced locally and on equitable access to food. The program also seeks to ensure that farmers, fisherman and other local food producers are better connected to a strong, resilient food system.” More than 1,300 applicants from entities in 314 municipalities submitted requests for nearly $202,000,000 of projects through FSIG. 369 grants were awarded to entities in 182 municipalities, totaling slightly less than $36,000,000 and meeting just 18% of the requested total amount. The Massachusetts Food System Collaborative’s report on the program provides a review of the applicant pool and funds granted, offering information about how well the program worked to meet the expressed demand. It examines how grants were allocated to different sectors of the food system, and how program criteria may have limited access to resources for some. It also offers recommendations for renewing the program with additional funding, with some modifications to program design. The Collaborative has also submitted a letter to state leaders, calling for a renewal of the program, along with some recommendations for changes to how it is operated.

Call for Governor to Increase Funding for Ag Grants

Each year, the Massachusetts Governor issues a Capital Budget that calls for millions of dollars in spending on a range of infrastructure and other programs. The legislature helps shape that spending with bond bills, including the Environmental Bond Bill, which authorizes the governor to spend capital dollars on agricultural grant programs. This annual spending determines how much will be allocated to grants like the urban agriculture program, the Farm Viability Enhancement Program, and others. As the Collaborative noted over a year ago, these programs have been oversubscribed for many years, with far greater demand than they have been able to meet. As Governor Baker considers his capital investments for FY22, we have written to him urging him to increase funding for these critical programs.

The Need for a State Farmland Action Plan

For Massachusetts farmers to thrive and pass on their farms to new and beginning farmers, land must be available and affordable. While the Commonwealth has laws, programs, regulations, and an executive order meant to help maintain our agricultural land base, they are not well coordinated nor robust enough, leading to continued loss of our state’s farmland and affordable quality farmland remains inaccessible to many farmers.   The MA Local Food Action Plan recommended that the Commonwealth develop a state farmland action plan. Five years later, COVID proved the value of our state’s farmers and local food system beyond any doubt, and reinforced the imperative that policymakers work to maintain and expand our farmland base. Part of that work necessarily requires redefining what farmland is, because advances in agricultural science and technology, climate change, and equity goals have reshaped agriculture in many ways since the current laws and regulations were written. Small parcel farming is one element of that redefinition, as is the dual use of land for agriculture and for green energy production and other climate adaptation and mitigation activity. Consumer engagement and support, farmer and farmworker housing, and other state initiatives such as the Rural Policy Plan and Rural Lands Initiative, are also considerations that must be part of the conversation. The Collaborative laid out the need for this holistic thinking in Moving a State Farmland Action Plan Forward, and has more recently published Small Parcel Agriculture: Policies for the changing face of Massachusetts agriculture (see below).  Vermont, Maine, New York, and other states in the Northeast have invested a great deal in farmland planning. Many of those plans target Massachusetts’ consumers for sales to provide a large part of the economic engine to preserve farms and farmland in those states. Massachusetts’ plan needs to do the same, in order to better support our farmers.   Massachusetts must effectively and comprehensively address the Commonwealth's need for farmland. The Governor has the ability to begin this planning process with authority given him in the 2018 Environmental Bond bill. The legislature is considering two bills (SD1169 and HD268) that would begin the process as well. If you agree that this effort is needed, consider calling or emailing your state officials to tell them that Massachusetts needs a comprehensive farmland plan. For more information email Jeff Cole at jeff@mafoodsystem.org.

Small Parcel Agriculture: Policies for the Changing Face of Massachusetts Agriculture

Massachusetts farmers are innovative, resilient, and committed to their communities. They adapt quickly and often dramatically to changes in markets, society, and external pressures. Laws and regulations however, often do not keep up. The average size of farms and farmland parcels has steadily decreased since the 1930s. Land and farm policy meant to benefit agriculture but tailored to farming on large parcels has not kept up with these changes, leaving acres of small parcels of farmland in the Commonwealth unprotected, too expensive to rent or purchase for farming, difficult for local communities and agricultural commissions to use in meeting community goals, and creating significant inequity for BIPOC farmers. These issues need to be considered in the context of a larger farmland action plan (see above), but also bear discussion as a primary concern. The MA Food System Collaborative has published Small Parcel Agriculture: Policies for the changing face of Massachusetts agriculture with some background on the issue and thoughts on current legislative proposals to address the issue.

MA Food Policy Councils Network Update

Throughout the pandemic, local food policy councils in municipalities and counties around Massachusetts have provided an important space to connect organizations that are working to help people who are food insecure. Many councils coordinated between programs, ensuring food pantries were open throughout the week and streamlining the procurement of food from food banks and elsewhere to pantries. They also provided important outreach, letting people know when programs were open, changes to programs, and important information about federal and state assistance programs. Many councils have also provided hands-on assistance to meet the needs of their communities.  Generally, food policy councils help to strengthen relationships, advocate for good food policies at the municipal level, and lead anti hunger coordination and outreach. They work on closing the SNAP gap, healthy school meals, increasing farm to institution, and supporting equity in the food system.  The Collaborative organizes the Local Food Policy Councils Network to help food policy councils connect and learn from one another. Meeting speakers have covered topics such as how to reduce food waste in your community, how to advocate for healthy school meals, and how to measure the value of coordinating work through a network analysis. Our webpage provides resources for emerging councils about how to get started, as well as resources for more established councils about how to create and implement policy priorities. To learn more, please contact Brittany Peats at brittany@mafoodsystem.org.

New England Feeding New England

The MA Food System Collaborative represents Massachusetts in the New England Feeding New England: Cultivating A Reliable Food Supply project, a partnership with food system leaders in all six New England states working to find long term solutions to expand and fortify the region’s food supply and distribution systems.  The project is a 15-year initiative to prepare the region for system shocks such as climate-related weather events and public health emergencies. Our aim is to increase regional food production for regional consumption. We can improve the reliability of our regional food system by strengthening supply chains. To organize and mobilize our collective efforts to strengthen the region’s food system, our goal is for 35% of food consumed in New England to be produced or harvested in New England by 2035. For more information, check out our website or contact Winton.

Local Food System Responses to COVID

In the summer of 2020 the Collaborative began capturing case studies of individuals and organizations developing innovative local food responses to the COVID crisis in the early days of the pandemic. Three of them are available on our website: Just Roots, Food for Free, City of Lynn.

Healthy Hampshire’s Amherst Mobile Market

It is difficult for many people without cars to access healthy food in Amherst. Healthy Hampshire started the Amherst Mobile Market to make affordable produce available within walking distance of concentrated populations of low-income, low-mobility, and vehicle-less residents. Watch their video to see what it means to the Amherst community.

Food System Toolkits

Municipal Policies To Support Food Access During Emergencies, from the Healthy Food Policy Project NASDA Food Security Toolkit: A Resource For State Commissioners, Secretaries And Directors Of Agriculture, from the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA)

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Resources

A Progressive’s Style Guide, by Hanna Thomas and Anna Hirsch Decentering Whiteness and Creating Inclusive and Equitable Conferences: A Tip Sheet, by Sonali Sangeeta Balajee and Maggie Potapchuk A Template for Authentic Resident Engagement in Food Access Policy Change, from the Healthy Food Policy Project Racial Equity Capacity Builders Directory, from The Boston Foundation For more resources, see our webpage.

Food System Articles We've Been Reading

Paving the Way for Cottage Foods in Massachusetts, from the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic A collaborative response to equitable food access during COVID-19: Building from Mass in Motion practices, by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health SNAP-Ed in Massachusetts Reaches New Audiences by Moving Online Food and paper waste compost program launches at Montague transfer station Delivering More Than Food: Understanding And Operationalizing Racial Equity In Food Hubs, from the Michigan State University Center For Regional Food Systems World Farmers give immigrants and refugees opportunities to grow at the Flats Mentor Farm in Lancaster. An Evaluation of the Farmers To Families Food Box Program, from the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic  Report On The Ocean Acidification Crisis In Massachusetts, from the Massachusetts Special Legislative Commission on Ocean Acidification

Job Postings and Upcoming Food System Events

Job Posting Sites: CISA Classifieds NOFA apprenticeship listings Good Food Jobs ATTRA paid and unpaid internships New England Ag Exchange Branchfood Jobs SEMAP Jobs and Opportunities Listing Job Listservs:  comfoodjobs Upcoming Food System Events: NESAWG Events Calendar New Entry Sustainable Farming MDAR's bimonthly Farm and Market Report SEMAP Events Calendar CISA Events Calendar UMass Extension Vegetable Program Know of another great source of events or jobs? Let us know!

The Massachusetts Food System Collaborative promotes, monitors, and facilitates implementation of the Massachusetts Local Food Action Plan. We bring together nonprofit trade and advocacy groups, businesses, academics, policymakers, regulators, and consumers to advance recommendations toward the Plan's goals.

Massachusetts Food System Collaborative | www.mafoodsystem.org

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