On September 30, Nourish California submitted our 2023 Farm Bill priorities to the California Department of Food & Agriculture (CDFA). We urge CDFA to support our recommendations and call on our California Congressional Delegation to work to enact them for the benefit of all Californians who need help putting food on the table.
You can read our detailed comments and recommendations here.
From small farming towns in the Central Valley to large urban centers, Californians in every community deserve an opportunity to put nutritious food on the table, especially the food grown here in our state. We have an obligation to make the next Farm Bill work for all Californians.
The Farm Bill is the nation’s most important piece of food and farming legislation and includes our state’s largest anti-hunger investment, CalFresh. Each year, over four million California residents gain access to the food they need through CalFresh. As Congress drafts the next Farm Bill, it is critical that SNAP/CalFresh is strengthened by advancing equity, removing barriers to access, and improving benefit adequacy.
We need solutions that help everyone in our great state make ends meet. As Congress drafts the next Farm Bill, we call on our elected leaders to make sure that all Californians – from farm workers to military veterans, college students to working families, and the very youngest to the very oldest among us – have enough to eat.
We Envision a Farm Bill Built on the Following Principles
- Prioritize food for all, targeting improvements to nutrition assistance programs to close accessibility and benefits adequacy gaps for populations struggling with hunger.
- Center the needs of individuals with lived experience of hunger, intergenerational poverty, and systemic racism.
- Provide adequate resources for states and counties to administer nutrition assistance programs with built in flexibility to address access issues unique to the state.
In summary, the next Farm Bill should advance bold, transformative policies that expand and strengthen federal nutrition programs; and establish an inclusive, equitable safety net open to all who call the United States home. Everyone in the United States should have the food they need and want to thrive. Our nation’s long history of exclusionary, inequitable policies and government-sanctioned oppression requires a re-visioning and rebuilding of our public systems if we are to truly eliminate hunger and ensure the well being of all.
Have questions? Contact Angeles Nelson, Policy Advocate, at angeles@nourishca.org.
