Updates on policy, programs, and perspectives from the MA food system.
April 19, 2021
Last week’s budget proposal from the House Committee on Ways and Means budget draft reflects how effective all of your advocacy has been! The proposal included funding at the requested levels for priorities like the Healthy Incentives Program, Buy Local Organizations, MEFAP, the MA Food Trust, and others.
April 13, 2021
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March 22, 2021
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 demand for 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.
January 28, 2021
The Massachusetts Food System Collaborative (www.mafoodsystem.org), which has led the Campaign for HIP Funding (www.hipma.org) for four years, opposes Governor Baker’s plan to dramatically cut support for healthy families and sustainable farms by reducing funding for the Healthy Incentives Program (HIP) as proposed in yesterday’s release of H1.
January 27, 2021
For Massachusetts farmers to feed the Commonwealth, land must be available and affordable. There are a number of laws, programs, regulations, and an executive order seeking to maintain our agricultural land base, but they do not coordinate, or do not coordinate well with each other, leading to , reduced effectiveness, economic and administrative inefficiency, and continued loss of farmland.
January 26, 2021
Participants in the 2020 listening sessions that led to publication of Massachusetts’ Local Food System: Perspectives on Resilience and Recovery repeatedly raised the need to build up awareness of the local food system at the municipal level. There were many ideas put forward toward that goal: engaging municipal leaders in food system advocacy; building coalitions to advocate for policy change at the municipal level; and working with local food policy councils to affect change, among them. Education about the food system for municipal leaders and advocates becoming more familiar with municipal legislative and regulatory processes could make coordinating at this level easier.
January 15, 2021
In June, 2020, the Collaborative began interviewing stakeholders about changes to their operations in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. The three completed case studies serve as a record of that extraordinary time, illustrating how local groups were able to adapt and what they learned about what's needed to ensure resiliency in the face of future crises.
January 15, 2021
In June, 2020, the Collaborative began interviewing stakeholders about changes to their operations in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. The three completed case studies serve as a record of that extraordinary time, illustrating how local groups were able to adapt and what they learned about what's needed to ensure resiliency in the face of future crises.
January 15, 2021
In June, 2020, the Collaborative began interviewing stakeholders about changes to their operations in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. The three completed case studies serve as a record of that extraordinary time, illustrating how local groups were able to adapt and what they learned about what's needed to ensure resiliency in the face of future crises.
January 14, 2021
The final discussion in the MA Food System Collaborative’s discussion series focused on the responses to the dramatic increase in the number of people in Massachusetts who are food insecure as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Panelists discussed the programs and collaborations that have addressed some of the growing needs, as well as advocacy campaigns to influence state and federal policy to address these issues systemically.