State agriculture officials ask Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to provide recommend adjustments to the Farmers to Families Food Box Program. The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture this week outlined recommendations to promote equity in farmers’ access to the program and remove unnecessary barriers of entry. Recommendations include considering the adverse impact on smaller farms when awarding contracts based on price, enabling vendors to curate boxes based on local preference and availability of food, and encouraging the participation of socially disadvantaged farmers.
NASDA CEO Dr. Barb Glenn states, “with some enhancements, we can extraordinarily expand the benefits of the program by allowing more producers to contribute and increasing the amount of food we can share.” NASDA members voted during the NASDA 2021 Winter Policy Conference to advocate for changes to the Farmers to Families Food Box program based on feedback from their relationships with farmers, ranchers, vendors and food box recipients.
