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Local food funding could return under proposed federal legislation

Officials with the Illinois Stewardship Alliance say efforts are underway to restore federal funding benefiting local food systems.

Molly Pickering, the organization’s policy director, says two bills being considered in Congress would resurrect programs like the USDA funded Local Food Purchase Assistance Program.

“The Strengthening Local Food Security Act and the Local Farmers Feeding Our Communities Act.”  She says, “It provides federal funding for our state to be able to purchase food from farmers in our state and provide it to underserved communities.”

Liz Rupel, ISA’s deputy director, tells Brownfield the program not only built markets for farmers, but also the rural economy.

“We’re just hoping to see something being built into a farm bill, if we ever got one, that would allow for programs like this to continue to exist.”  She says, “Because when you invest in your local community, you get that return.”

Pickering, who believes food security is good policy, says the bills have bipartisan support in both chambers.

“Most of the federal subsidies are sort of tilted towards commodity crop production.”  She says, “So, we’re trying to get it back to where our federal dollars are supporting local food production so that we can build the sort of food security and resilience that we want to see.”

Rupel says in addition to economic drivers, the program also served health initiative goals by infusing local healthy foods into the communities most in need. 

AUDIO: Molly Pickering – Illinois Stewardship Alliance