By Donovan Glasgow, Policy Intern

On March 1st, USDA opened grant applications under the Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP), and with this opening came an exciting announcement; in addition to the standard focus areas of these grants, USDA is seeking to fund Farm to Institution (FTI) projects. Organizations interested in establishing or expanding connections between local food producers and institutions—such as schools, hospitals, elder care facilities, higher education, early childhood education centers, and state agencies—are encouraged to apply. 

Grant Details

There are two grants with funding available for FTI projects. 

• Under the Local Food Promotion Program (LFPP), grants aim to develop food businesses which connect local food to institutions. Awards range from $100,000 to $500,000. Eligible applicants include agricultural businesses or cooperatives, CSA networks or associations, food councils, local governments, nonprofits, public benefit corporations, economic development corporations, regional farmers market authorities, and tribal governments.
• Under the Regional Food System Partnerships (RFSP), grants aim to facilitate partnerships between the public and private sector. Awards range from $500,000 to $1,000,000. Applicants must be partnerships between one eligible entity and one eligible partner, which are defined below. 

• Eligible entities: producers, farmer or rancher cooperatives, producer networks or associations, majority-controlled producer-based business ventures, food councils, CSA networks or associations, local governments, nonprofit corporations, public benefit corporations, economic development corporations, regional farmers market authorities, and tribal governments.
• Eligible partners: state agencies or regional authorities, philanthropic corporations, private corporations, institutions of higher education, and commercial, federal, or farm credit system lending institutions.

Applications for both programs are due 11:59 PM Eastern Time on May 16, 2022. In addition, the application deadline for the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA) has been extended to May 6th! Through the LFPA, state agencies and tribal governments can apply for Cooperative Agreements to buy locally-produced food to supply communities facing food insecurity. See below for more details and assistance on LFPA, or in our Agency Announcements resource.

Shifting Power Through Farm to Institution 

Investments in FTI projects hold the potential to address agriculture’s racial and class disparities. Today, 98% of all farmland is owned by white proprietors. Furthermore, farmers who identify as People of Color are more likely to own less land and generate less farm-related wealth than their white counterparts (source). Our Call to Action is that by 2025, 100% of communities will hold power in a racially just food system. Redirecting money back to small-scale farmers and their communities through FTI is one avenue towards this goal. 

Stable Revenue Increases Farmer Viability

FTI projects offer farmers a large, additional source of revenue which can complement direct-to-consumer streams such as farmers markets and CSAs (source). More money for local farmers means more money for communities; according to one study, every dollar spent on local food procurement by institutions results in up to $2.16 in local economic activity (source). 

Program Focus on Producer Diversity‍

Both the LFPP and RFSP grants encourage applications that benefit “smaller farms and ranches, new and beginning farmers and ranchers, underserved producers, veteran producers, and/or underserved communities,” and both give priority consideration to projects that “benefit communities located in areas of concentrated poverty with limited access to supermarkets or locally or regionally grown food.” 

Resilience for Institutions and Communities

FTI projects allow institutions, such the Livingston School District in Montana, to reduce their dependence on remote supply chains and avoid chronic shortages. When local food is incorporated into cafeteria menus, patrons at these institutions consume more fruits and vegetables (source). And from an environmental standpoint, FTI programs reduce food waste, cut down on food miles (the distance food is transported from harvest to plate), and fund sustainable agricultural practices (source). 

Next steps‍

To learn more about the LFPP and RFSP grants, review the RFAs, see Frequently Asked Questions, read about previous awardees, and apply for technical assistance available to applicants, visit the below links. 

• LFPP website
• RFSP website

Additionally, check out these helpful resources from the Wallace Center:

• Library of grant writing tips, templates, and tools
• Outreach materials and social media templates
• Webinar: 2021 LAMP Overview and Outreach (Recorded May 2021)
• Webinar: Making Sense of the Regional Food Systems Partnership Grant (Recorded April 2021)‍
• Webinar: FMLFPP Proposals: The Insider’s Scoop (Recorded May 2019)‍
• More information about the LFPA

Be sure to share these opportunities and resources with producers, enterprises, and institutions in your network!

We’ve gathered the standout resources developed this past year by National Farm to School Network and farm to ECE partners across the country to celebrate all of the fantastic work the farm to ECE community has accomplished. Explore the National Farm to School Network website’s resource database for more farm to ECE resources. If you've developed great farm to ECE resources this year and would like to share them with the farm to ECE community, send them to Sophia (Sophia@farmtoschool.org). 

National Farm to School Network Blog Posts 

• Creative Opportunities for Funding Farm to Early Care and Education (ECE): USDA Farm to School Grant
• Farm to ECE 10th Anniversary Celebration: The New Leaders 
• Farm to ECE 10th Anniversary Celebration: The Early Leaders
• Creative Opportunities for Funding Farm to ECE: Sugar Sweetened Beverage Taxes
• Creative Opportunities For Strengthening Farm to ECE Through Emerging Federal Funding Streams
• How Schools and Early Care Sites Served as Hubs for Food Access During COVID-19
• Innovations in Farm to ECE: Growing the Next Generation of Providers
• Innovations in Farm to CACFP: Colorado's CACFP Matchmaking Survey
• Innovations in Farm to CACFP: Arizona's CACFP Farm Fresh Challenge
• Innovations in Farm to CACFP: Iowa's Incentive Pilot Program
  

Assessments

• Farm to Early Education Self-Assessment by the National Farm to School Network (NFSN) and the Association of State Public Health Nutritionists (ASPHN) 

Farm to early care and education (farm to ECE) is a set of activities that include purchasing and serving local foods, gardening (indoors or outdoors), and food and agriculture education activities. This Farm to ECE Self-Assessment is designed to help ECE providers and those who work with ECE providers assess their current farm to ECE practices and develop goals and action plans to grow farm to ECE at their site. Available in both English and Spanish. 

Reports

• Leveraging Local Food Incentive Policy to Benefit Children and Producers: Lessons from the D.C. Healthy Tots Act by the National Farm to School Network and Research Triangle Institute International 

This new report examines how HTA and the Local5 component influence ECE site local food purchasing practices and impact local food intermediaries and local producers, with a focus on HTA impacts on low-income children and children of color as well as Black, Indigenous and other people of color (BIPOC) producers. Based on the successes and challenges of HTA implementation identified through key stakeholder interviews, ECE provider surveys, and participation data analysis, the authors outline key recommendations for developing more impactful and equitable local food incentive policies for ECE settings. 

• Lessons from the COVID-19 Experience: Innovations and Strategies for Farm to Early Care and Education Implementation in States and Communities by the Policy Equity Group and the National Farm to School Network, with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation

This brief captures how farm to early care and education (ECE) efforts at the state and community levels were initially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Informed by the experiences of food and early childhood partner organizations in five states – Georgia, Iowa, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin – the brief documents the systemic impacts of COVID-19 and the federal response from a farm to ECE perspective; describes how farm to ECE partner organizations adapted to the new context during the initial months of the pandemic; and provides recommendations for how states and communities can sustain the successful strategies implemented during the pandemic.

• Farm to Early Care Sourcing Strategies by Georgia Organics

Infographic report on local food sourcing best practices, challenges, and successes from a 2019-2021 research project tracking the activities of four Georgia ECE purchasers. 

Guides

• Local Foods: Child Care Center Fruit & Vegetable Gardening Series by the Natural Learning Initiative (NLI) in collaboration with the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) and NC Cooperative Extension 

This series has 8 publications all related to building the best garden for your childcare center. The publications include details on creating a childcare garden, growing and preparing fruits and vegetables in both warm and cool seasons, snacking and cooking techniques and composting techniques

• North Carolina State University Farm to ECE Purchasing Guide and Decision Tree by the North Carolina State University

This guide and decision tree can be used to support and advance local food purchasing in ECE sites. This NC Cooperative Extension publication will be useful for child care centers and technical assistance providers who are trying to figure out the best way to purchase local food for meals and snacks for their centers.

Curricula

• Pint Size Produce - Easy to Use Activities for Early Childhood by Renewing the Countryside 

Pint Size Produce features produce and products grown in the midwest. Each activity suite includes an activity plan, a parent handout, and a half page flier highlighting key information. They are available in PDF as well as PowerPoint formats so providers and others can modify to meet their needs. 

Many early care and education (ECE) sites struggle with local procurement. One of the reasons local procurement can be difficult is due to the often small volume needs, which can be lower than the smallest unit a farmer is willing to sell. Sites also can lack the equipment and staff time to plan menus, cook from scratch, and make multiple grocery trips per week. One approach to overcoming these barriers is through cooperative purchasing. Cooperative purchasing means sharing a purchase order, either with another early learning site, with families, or with a school district. 

Northeast Iowa Head Start Classrooms purchase cooperatively with their partner school districts, streamlining and simplifying local procurement. This approach makes for a consistently healthy environment for children from preschool through school age years, resulting in a higher probability of lasting healthy habits. In addition, by partnering with a school district, local procurement logistical and capacity issues that may make local procurement unrealistic otherwise are easily solved, freeing up ECEs to focus on other aspects of farm to ECE such as promoting the local foods offered and implementing farm to ECE activities in tandem with local foods. 

According to Haleisa Johnson, Early Childhood Program Coordinator for Northeast Iowa’s Food & Fitness Program (NIFFP), these partnerships are in effect in seven counties. NIFFP’s farm to school work began in 2007 through a WK Kellogg Foundation grant, with farm to ECE following close behind in 2012. “In 2004, we were seeing young children in our clinics with type 2 diabetes or prediabetes, so we decided to see how many children in the schools had these diseases. Of those with parent permission for tests, 14% of the children in our schools were prediabetic or had type 2 diabetes.” According to Haleisa, before their farm to school and ECE work, many schools and Head Start sites primarily used heat and go meals instead of cooking on-site. Now, Head Starts who have decided to contract with their local school districts receive prepared meals in compliance with CACFP, along with the recipes, serving sizes, and component contributions for mixed dishes. These Head Starts saw the benefits of farm to school as soon as their partner schools began procuring locally and delivering fresh, wholesome meals.

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School districts in Iowa have simplified their local procurement by purchasing from food hubs. “Over half of the farm to school purchases in Iowa come from food hubs”, explained Teresa Wiemerslage, field specialist with ISU Extension and Outreach and founder of the Iowa Food Hub. “Iowa’s food hubs work with hundreds of farmers to get products to institutions each week.” Food hubs are especially important to Iowa’s farm to institution work, as most of the farmers markets in Northeast Iowa are very small with few produce vendors. Chad Elliot, Culinary Specialist and Nutrition Director for Decorah Community School District, explained how the Food Hub has been integral to their local food purchasing. “The Iowa Food Hub makes it easy for us to get the quality and quantity of food we need at a price we can afford.” 

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Contracting with schools makes it relatively effortless to get local foods on plates, but it’s not without its own challenges. “Since the Head Starts contract with the school for meals, I am not sure that they always realize when local food is featured in meals. The food service directors do a good job of working in produce from school gardens and ordering through the food hub, but you can’t always identify the local food by looking at the menu”, Teresa explained. Haleisa has employed strategies to get providers invested in farm to ECE and highlight the local food served. Using grant funds, Haleisa has provided all Head Start classrooms with a monthly teacher box containing local foods from the Iowa Food Hub to go along with a farm to ECE curriculum. “The boxes get dropped off at the dietary department, so these boxes really open the door for dietary to appreciate the local foods being used in classrooms and served in meals.” Other Head Starts purchase from the food hub independently using mini-grant funds. However, as Teresa explained, without the School District partnerships, the childcare customers are very small accounts and the food hub is set up for large wholesale purchases, making it difficult to justify serving childcare accounts. The food hub’s transition to online market operations and included delivery has been a solution to this challenge and a great way to serve smaller accounts like childcare centers. According to Haleisa, the childcare centers that have promoted and supplemented their local foods through activities and Harvest of the Month have reaped the rewards of their efforts. “It makes a huge difference in the classroom environment...it’s easy to see that the kids that eat better are better behaved.” Trusting relationships with both the school food service staff and the ECE staff is the key to cooperative purchasing, according to Haleisa. “Coach them of the benefits, the logistics and the sources for purchasing local food. Most of all be patient and supportive, it takes time to work cooperatively,” she advised. 

As 2021 comes to a close, the Policy team at NFSN want to take a moment to unpack recent major announcements and funding opportunities from the US Department of Agriculture that should cheer the farm to school and farm to ECE community. 

2021 has brought a flurry of activity and announcements from USDA, as the new presidential administration worked to create new programs for local food infrastructure, to improve the Department’s commitment to racial and social equity, to award record levels of funding for Farm to School grants, and to distribute American Rescue Plan Act funds to communities – in addition to the currently open Farm to School Grant opportunity (closing January 10!). 

See this summary of just a few of the recent announcements from USDA that NFSN Partners should know about. 

In December, USDA also announced more details of $1.5 billion in Commodity Credit Corporation funding to help school nutrition programs cope with supply chain challenges. This funding will be broken down as:

• Supply Chain Assistance Funds: $1 billion in cash payments for schools to purchase unprocessed and minimally processed foods. States and Territories have the option of using up to 10% of the Supply Chain Assistance funds to make bulk purchases of local food and then distributing these foods to schools for use in their meal programs. States also have the option of targeting the funds to areas of highest need by limiting distribution to school districts where a quarter or more of students are from low-income households.
• Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement: $200 million awarded by the Agricultural Marketing Service in cooperative agreements to states and U.S. Territories for purchase of local foods for distribution to schools.
• USDA Foods Purchases: $300 million in USDA Foods purchases for states to distribute to schools. 
  

We are very pleased that the bulk of this funding will offer flexibility in purchasing for our school nutrition partners, and that the local and regional producers will have the opportunity to serve the school food market through state purchases.

See the allocation of this funding here. Please click here to read the USDA press release.

Additionally, USDA is launching a new Local and Regional Food System Recovery and Resilience Project. Building on the findings of its Local and Regional Food Systems Response (LRFS) to COVID-19 initiative, this program will facilitate networking, data gathering, and technical assistance. Join their next webinar on January 14 (register here), and review their call for partners in a new Network of Networks, a cross-sector convening to allow local food system stakeholders to make valuable connections. If interested, please fill out this form and join their first meeting on January 26 at 1:00pm ET. 

These actions should be a source of pride for farm to school and farm to ECE partners who have worked over the last 20 months to highlight how local, equitable, and flexible food system connections can support and nourish our communities in times of emergency. Together, our advocacy for targeted, flexible funding to food systems infrastructure, and for leveraging federally-reimbursed Child Nutrition Programs to do so, has made an impact. We look forward to supporting partners as these funds are implemented.

Throughout November, for Native American Heritage Month, National Farm to School Network highlighted contemporary Native foodway leaders. As we enter into the last month of the year, we want to continue to support and uplift Native efforts to reclaim food sovereignty,  revitalize traditional diets, and nourish their communities with culturally-appropriate food. Here’s a recap of the rich conversations and stories we shared this past month.

November’s Coffee Chat Conversation: Celebrating Indigenous Foodways and Futures featured Cindy Farlee (Itázipčho Lakȟóta), Program Officer for the Native American Agriculture Fund and Mariah Gladstone (Blackfeet/Cherokee), Founder of Indigikitchen  sharing about their personal relationships with traditional foodways, passions for food sovereignty, and visions for the future of Indian Country.

On Facebook and Instagram, we spotlighted Janie Hipp, Deb Halaand, Zach Ducheneaux, and Fawn Sharp.

Janie Hipp of the Chickasaw Nation is the first Native American to serve as General Counsel at USDA, and she is the most senior Native person to serve USDA in its 159-year history. As a former National Farm to School Network advisory board member, Janie is a champion for Native youth in agriculture programming. She formerly served as the CEO of the Native American Agriculture Fund. 

In her interview with Food Tank, Janie shared, “I come from a very rural area of the country; I’m Chickasaw and I grew up deep in Choctaw areas of Oklahoma. We had lots of challenges in our area the entire time I was growing up: high unemployment, remoteness, and poverty. But we were surrounded by beautiful forests, lands, waters and people. Working with farming and ranching and “food people” has always been what I loved to do, even when I was young.  I was put on this earth to do this work. I found it, or should I say it found me, early in my career and I’ve never strayed too far from doing agricultural law.” 

Deb Haaland of New Mexico’s Laguna Pueblo is the first Native American in U.S. history to serve as a Cabinet secretary. Sworn in as the United States Secretary of the Interior in 2021, she advocates for environmental justice, the priorities of Indian Country, and diverse representation at decision-making tables.

In celebration of Native American Heritage Month, she shared, “November is Native American Heritage Month, and a good time to honor the legacy of our ancestors, but every day we should stop to think about our country's beginning and that the United States would not exist if not for a great deal of sacrifice, blood, and tears by Indian Tribes across the country.”

Zach Ducheneaux, member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, was appointed Administrator for USDA’s Farm Service Agency this year. As an avid supporter of Native youth in agriculture programming, he believes young people will continue to inspire others in traditional foodways.

He shares his dreams for Indian Country and the influence of youth leaders in saying, “I’m excited about a future where the person across the desk from a farmer in Indian Country, the person who’s helping the farmer with financial planning, underwriting their insurance, or appraising their land, is also from Indian Country. The youth have been returning home from our leadership programs and reminding their leaders that we are agricultural people, and that’s a big reason why agriculture is no longer an afterthought for lots of tribal leaders.”

Fawn Sharp of the Quinault Indian Nation in Taholah serves as the 23rd President of the National Congress of American Indians, the oldest, largest and most representative American Indian and Alaska Native tribal government organization in the U.S.

Reflecting on the power that Indigenous peoples have to address climate change and other issues, she offers, “We stand on the shoulders of so many of our ancestors and generations that have gone before us. And while we have multi-generational trauma, multi-generational poverty, multi-generational political, economic, and social marginalization, we also have multi-generational strength and resilience, and wisdom, and teachings.” 

We look forward to continuing our commitment to Native communities and foodway leaders as we work collectively to cultivate a racially just food system by 2025.

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‍The USDA Farm to School Grant is an annual, competitive grant that supports the planning, development, and implementation of farm to school and farm to ECE programs. USDA's Farm to School grants are an important way to help state, regional, and local organizations as they initiate, expand, and institutionalize their farm to school and farm to ECE efforts. As Farm to ECE has gained popularity, there has been a notable increase in USDA Farm to School grantees working on farm to ECE efforts. Since 2018, the number of grantees focusing on farm to ECE has increased, with three grantees in 2019, five in 2020, and 19 in 2021. The Snohomish Conservation District and the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants/Erie Field Office are two 2021 grantees dedicating their efforts to farm to ECE. This month, we will explore the inspiring work these grantees have envisioned for their communities. 

Snohomish Conservation District - Lake Stevens, Washington Grant Type: Implementation
The Snohomish Conservation District is planning to use their grant funding to build comprehensive farm to ECE programs at five Snohomish County Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) sites. ECEAP a program funded by Washington State for children 3 and 4 years old. Partnering with Snohomish County Cooperative Extension SNAP-Ed, The Snohomish Conservation District plans to expand the growing capacity of on-site gardens, instruct educators on how to implement a garden curriculum, and provide experiential education by conducting field trips to nearby farms, implementing cooking demonstrations and tastings with local produce, and providing classroom educational resources.To enhance family engagement, they also plan on providing a cookbook at the end of the grant to the families involved, using both recipes submitted by families and recipes that use produce growing in the on-site gardens that families may be less familiar with. 

Joe Crumbley, Snohomish Conservation District’s Urban Agriculture Program Coordinator, explained how the USDA Farm to School Grant will help them expand the growing capacity of the on-site gardens. “Through the grant, we are able to fund raised garden beds, composting systems, drip irrigation attached to rain barrels, and sheet mulching to reduce weeding labor. We’re also developing perennial gardens and are planning to plant native fruiting edible plants. All these strategies will reduce the amount of labor and upkeep involved while increasing the amount we can grow and harvest. All this extra growing capacity will make it possible for us to use our harvest in meals and snacks at the sites,” he explained. 

Though Snohomish Conservation District has previously worked with schools through their youth education program, this is their first time stepping into farm to ECE. Joe was connected to their ECEAP partner sites through the Conservation District’s Lawns to Lettuce program, a program that offers cost-share opportunities up to $500 to help applicants working on urban agriculture projects. ECEAP programs applied for funding, and Joe saw an opportunity for crossover with the Conservation District’s youth education program. As they began establishing the opportunity, it spread through word of mouth and other ECEAP programs jumped at the chance to get involved. Integrating early learning sites into their youth education work seemed like a natural conclusion due to the benefits farm to ECE provides. “We pivoted to ECEAP centers because long term garden maintenance is easier. There’s less pushback, staff are on-site year round to help with maintenance, and there’s less red tape to serve our harvest on-site and to families,” Joe explained. This opportunity for sustainable gardens is what sold farm to ECE to the rest of his team. 

When choosing which sites to prioritize for the grant project, Joe used website tools like the Washington State Department of Health’s Environmental Health Disparities Map, USDA’s Food Access Research Atlas, and CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index map to ensure they targeted communities who are underserved and are experiencing food and local food access issues, as these communities can especially benefit from farm to ECE. He also made sure to review the pollution of local waterways. This is because replacing lawns with more permeable surfaces, such as gardens, can be beneficial. He believes this systematic approach to partnerships that maximizes benefits to children and communities both physically and environmentally can be used by others working in farm to ECE and considering applying for USDA Farm to School funding. 

U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants/Erie Field Office- Erie, Pennsylvania Grant Type: Turnkey
In Erie, Pennsylvania, the field office of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI Erie) is working to create an edible garden in partnership with its childcare center who works with families who arrived as refugees or immigrants. Produce from the garden will be used in farm to ECE activities, meals and snacks and sent home with families. The garden is an extension of USCRI Erie’s Flagship Farms venture. Dylanna Grasinger, Director of the Erie field office, explained Flagship Farms as a program that “takes individuals who want to farm or want to grow food for their families and trains them with hands-on activities. We also use the produce from the garden at our childcare center.” According to Grasinger, creating a garden that the children can learn and play in seemed like a natural extension of what they were already doing. 

USCRI Erie is committed to engaging with community members to make sure their program is strong, sustainable, and reflective of the community's wants and needs. To achieve this goal, they’ve reached out to community members and are developing a farm to table committee. Members include the local school district, local markets and restaurants, the local health department, and other organizations. They also plan to have separate conversations with families once the committee has begun their work. Considering USCRI Erie’s community-based approach, it’s no surprise that Dylanna recommends working with communities to build sustainable and effective programs. “It’s so important to take a holistic approach to this work and get community buy-in,” she explained. 

Thanks to your advocacy, this week the White House announced an agreement for the Build Back Better Act through budget reconciliation with landmark investments in child nutrition, investments and technical assistance to rural communities and Native sovereign nations, and a transformative investment in early childhood care and education. Details on this plan are still emerging, but we need your continued support to get this legislation across the finish line in Congress.

With $10 billion in funds for child nutrition, Build Back Better would:

• Expand the number of schools that would be able to offer free meals to all students through the Community Eligibility Provision.*
• Give states the option to implement the Community Eligibility Provision statewide, allowing all students in the state to receive school breakfast and lunch at no charge.*
• Extend Summer EBT nationwide for students who receive free or reduced-price school meals (including those who attend Community Eligibility Provision, Provision 2, or Provision 3 schools).  The Act would allow states as well as Indian Tribal Organizations that participate in WIC to provide Summer EBT.
• Provide $30 million for school kitchen equipment grants.*
  *Length of funding for these programs is still being determined

Additionally, the plan would provide universal free preschool education for all 3- and 4-year olds, and subsidize and expand quality child care to 20 million children per year. Finally, the new Rural Partnership Project would offer flexible funding for community-driven rural development, and higher education funding would invest in Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), and minority-serving institutions* (MSIs).
*This is a term in U.S. federal policy to denote colleges and universities serving Black, Hispanic, Native, and Asian American or Pacific Islander communities.

Now is the time for your Members of Congress and Senators to hear from you that they need to fight for bold measures to advance equity for our kids, their families, and their communities.

TAKE ACTION

Your voice is needed! Call your Senators and Representatives TODAY and tell them you want to see their support for children, families, educators and food systems workers by passing the Build Back Better budget reconciliation bill. Here’s how:

Step 1: Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

Step 2: Ask to be connected with the office of your Member of Congress. Give the Switchboard your zip code and they can connect you to your 1 Representative and 2 Senators.

Step 3: Leave a message for your Senators and Representatives like this:

Hi, my name is ___, and I am a constituent and a [parent, educator, farmer, etc.]. I’d like to ask [your Congressperson/Senator’s name] to pass Build Back Better because of its crucial investment in ensuring all kids have access to nourishing food every day, its expansion of quality early childhood education, and its investment in rural communities and communities of color.

I urge [your legislator] to pass the critical investments that will  improve the nutrition of our nation’s children at a critical time, while investing in the resilience of our communities and food system as a whole. These issues matter to me because ____ [tell your story!]. Thank you!

Step 4: Take two more minutes to your story on social media so your networks know about this critical moment!

If you work for a government agency or university and cannot lobby, you can still make a difference! Instead of calling your legislators to discuss these specific policy asks, share general information about farm to school experiences and needs in your community. Sharing information is not lobbying - it’s education, which we can all do!

Taking action right now, while this reconciliation bill is in discussion, is especially crucial. Make your calls and forward this message to a friend. THANK YOU for taking a few minutes out of your day to make your voice heard.

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We had a coffee chat conversation with Krystal Oriadha, our Senior Director of Programs & Policy, Derriontae Trent, Market Coordinator of the Sweet Sol Hot Sauce Cooperative, and Taurean Dixon, Administration of the Sweet Sol Hot Sauce Cooperative, that shed light on the next generation of Black farmers and current issues with land ownership. Derriontae and Taurean are members of The Come Up Project’s Gangstas to Growers program in Atlanta, GA, which provides paid entrepreneurial internships for at-promise youth and formerly incarcerated individuals, to offer them a chance to participate in the legitimate economy.

In this energizing session, Derriontae introduces the value of maintaining equity in the workplace when striving to make change in one’s community. Highlighting how Gangstas to Growers was created by their community for their community, he stresses the need for opportunities for young people to achieve their dreams and to have agency in their futures - especially in urban spaces threatened by gentrification. Speaking to their experiences of being young, Black entrepreneurs, Taurean touches on how every day is a learning process. He encourages finding value in hard work, researching opportunities, and connecting with others. 

Working with over 100 Black-owned farms, Derriontae and Taurean find pride in their work, in their city, and in their stories of success. To hear more about the power of dedicated community members working together to change lives and make food, watch here. 

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Special thanks to National Co+Op Grocers (https://www.ncg.coop/) and Farm Credit (https://farmcredit.com/) for their support of National Farm to School Network, which helps make this Coffee Chat series possible.