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Advocacy Priorities

Even as we’re working to meet an immediate need for fresh, wholesome food today, we’re committed to working with others (like community members, business leaders, and elected officials) to raise awareness of the issues underpinning our work and to raise support for long term solutions to address wasted food, food insecurity, and the climate emergency. 

We do this in a number of ways, such as:

  • Listening to our stakeholders and learning from their perspectives; 
  • Lending our insights to important conversations; 
  • Connecting stakeholders to one another; 
  • Using our platform to elevate community members’ voices and experiences; and
  • Reaching out, and encouraging others to reach out, to their elected officials to push for promising policy solutions at the intersection of wasted food, food insecurity, and the climate emergency. 

Each year, we identify a handful of key actions around which we work to mobilize others. Collectively, these are known as our “Advocacy Priorities.” Some of them align directly and in obvious ways with the work we do every day, and others more broadly pave the way for a more just and sustainable food system and a healthy planet. 

Our Advocacy Priorities this year include:  

Implementing the objectives of the White House Conference on Hunger, Health & Nutrition:

Lovin’ Spoonfuls’ Founder & CEO, Ashley Stanley, represented Lovin’ Spoonfuls at the Conference in 2022. Spoonfuls continues to work in partnership with local, regional, and national leaders to identify ways to apply the lessons learned at the Conference to our work here in Massachusetts – and to involve others in these efforts. Read more on the White House Strategy here.

Building support for legislation aimed at improving access to safe, nutritious, affordable, and culturally-relevant food, including: 
  • An Act relative to the healthy incentives program (SD.85: State Sen. Anne Gobi / HD.185: State Reps. Bradley H. Jones, Jr. and Hannah Kane)
  • An Act encouraging the donation of food to persons in need (SD.920: State Sen. Jo Comerford / HD.1594: State Rep. Hannah Kane)
  • An Act strengthening our local food systems (SD.42: State Sen. Jo Comerford / HD.88: State Rep. Natalie Blais)
  • An Act supporting the Commonwealth’s food system (HD.92: State Reps Dan Donahue and Pat Duffy)
  • An Act relative to Universal School Meals (HD.603: State Rep. Andres Vargas / SD.261: State Sen. Sal DiDomenico) 
    • In August 2023, free school meals for all became a permanent part of the MA state budget. This budget win means that no kid in Massachusetts will ever go without a meal during the school day again, and is big step towards improved food access for kids across MA. We hope The Act passes, too, to further improve food access for families.
  • Healthy Meals Help Kids Learn Act of 2023 (H.R. 1269, U.S. Congress, 118 U.S. Congress 1st Session, 2023)
Building support for legislation aimed at promoting food literacy and awareness of the problem of wasted food, including: 
  • The addition of food waste education to the program goals of SNAP-Ed in the Nutrition Title of the 2023 Farm Bill 
  • An Act relative to food literacy (SD.310: State Sen. Jason Lewis / HD.601: State Reps. Andres Vargas and Mindy Domb)
    • Check out our Food Literacy blog to learn about all things food literacy, including a recent big win in the State budget and an opportunity to support this bill in the fall.
Building support for legislation aimed at reducing wasted food and the impact it has on our planet, including: 
  • An Act decreasing food waste by standardizing the date labeling of food (HD.2205: State Rep. Hannah Kane / SD.1390: State Sen. Edward Kennedy)
  • Food Date Labeling Act of 2023 (118 U.S. Congress 1st Session, 2023)
  • Local ordinances encouraging diversion of wasted food
In partnership with RecyclingWorks Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, working to support the implementation of the Massachusetts Organics Waste Ban:

The Organics Waste Ban helps divert good food away from landfills and encourages businesses to donate edible food.

Want to know when there are opportunities to speak up on these issues? Let us keep you informed!

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Want to learn more about advocacy and food and/or environmental justice issues?