From Massachusetts with love: Truckloads of food arrive in Texas, courtesy of US veterans, New England Patriots

Freeport Marine Ernesto Casas Jr. texted a fellow Marine about the need for food in Texas after last week’s deadly winter storm. And this happened.

Author: Michelle Homer, Lauren Talarico

Published: 6:49 PM EST February 25, 2021

Updated: 12:37 PM EST February 26, 2021

Source: Fox61

HOUSTON — Cheers erupted in Freeport Friday morning when two trucks loaded with 150,000 pounds of food rolled into town from Massachusetts. 

The cross-country trip came about because Freeport Marine Ernesto Casas texted a fellow Marine in New England saying Texas needs food. 

After last week’s historic storm caused millions of homes and businesses in Texas to lose power, families had food spoil and grocery shelves were bare. 

Since then, the Houston Food Bank and other pantries have been overwhelmed at food drives with cars sometimes lined up for miles.

From east to west and lot of spots in between, A Marine veteran from Lake Jackson travels the country visiting families of fallen soldiers and first responders to honor them.

“I tell them that their loved ones will never be forgotten,” said Ernesto Casas. “That’s my primary goal.”

Casas travels include the states of New Mexico, California, New Hampshire, Tennessee, and Massachusetts, where he met Representative Steven Xiarhos.

“When my son, Nick, was killed in Afghanistan, this man from Texas came all the way to Massachusetts and visited us,” Rep. Xiarhos said.

Casas and Xiarhos have kept in touch through the years. Last week, when Xiarhos asked how Casas and his community was holding up after the deadly winter storm, Casas had an idea.

“He’s (Xiarhos) always said if you ever need anything just reach out," Casas said.

So Casas responded with a text, “Hey, send food. I’m dead serious.”

That’s exactly what folks in Massachusetts did. Katsiroubas Bros., a produce wholesaler in New England, pitched in to secure 150,000 pounds of food.

Volunteers loaded pallets of food on two tractor-trailers and they hit the road.

Now is time for Massachusetts to invest more in regional food systems: Viewpoint

Updated Jan 03, 2021; Posted Jan 03, 2021

Source: MassLive

By Philip Korman | Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture

Nine months into the pandemic, even with vaccines on the way, it is evident that its impacts will be with us for years to come. The most basic aspects of our lives have been upended, including how we feed ourselves. More and more people must rely on emergency food distributions — many of whom are the same people who are still working, often in unsafe conditions, to grow, pack, process, ship, and sell our food. The weaknesses of our national industrial food system have been laid bare.

A handful of companies control every aspect of our national food system, thanks to a “get big or get out” approach to agricultural policy implemented by the federal government in the 1970s and a lack of will to enforce antitrust laws. According to Michigan State University’s Philip H. Howard, “At almost every key stage of the food system, four firms alone control 40% or more of the market, a level above which these companies have the power to drive up prices for consumers and reduce their rate of innovation.” This includes companies that dominate the seed, farm equipment, meat processing, and retail outlet industries. As a result, small farmers face huge challenges making a living and paying fair wages, farm workers face exploitive conditions, farmland is degraded, and consumers are left with a food supply that is easily disrupted in a crisis, like a pandemic.

There’s a lot we can do to address these challenges on the state level, on behalf of the over 7,000 farms and 25,000 agricultural workers in the commonwealth. We must press our elected and appointed government officials to think big in this crisis to create a better food system for the future and to invest now in start-ups and established businesses.

The effort has begun. Based on recommendations from the Baker-Polito administration’s Food Security Task Force, a $36 million COVID-19 food security infrastructure grant program was created (in addition to more funding for food banks and more access points for households using SNAP and the Healthy Incentives Program, or HIP). The response was overwhelming: over 1,300 grant proposals were submitted by farms, fisheries, public schools, corner stores, nonprofits and more. To date, the program has funded over 190 projects, representing 60% of the monies, with more grant awards to be announced.

The farm projects that received funding will strengthen regional farms’ ability to grow, process, deliver and store food, thereby improving food security and food access in the region. One award recipient is Reed Farm in Sunderland, which raises chickens and processes poultry raised on other area farms. As misgivings grow about the national meat supply, demand within the region for high-quality local poultry has increased. The funding will allow Reed Farm to make significant upgrades to its existing poultry facility, which will increase the poultry processing capacity available to local farms and make locally-raised poultry more available to consumers.

Another project, by Our Family Farms, will allow the dairy cooperative to purchase milk-processing equipment and refrigerated delivery trucks. With our state losing upward of 90% of dairy farms over the past 30 years, this is an important investment.

Riquezas del Campo is an immigrant-led, worker-owned cooperative farm in Hatfield that was established in 2019. Its grant will enable the installation of a wash station, potable water connection, purchase a tractor and implements and install mobile cold storage and high tunnels.

As Gov. Charlie Baker and our legislators start crafting the 2021 policies, we need to build on this program and ensure that it is not merely a single moment of wakefulness in the midst of a dark night. The investments we make in our food system should aim for long-term improvements and resilience, not merely returning us to the “old normal.” We cannot wait for antitrust action at the national level but rather must invest in our local farms and businesses now.

The chances for success are promising. The Food System Caucus is now the second-largest caucus in the state Legislature. And the good work of the Massachusetts Food System Collaborative has provided a framework to move forward (see its new publication, “Massachusetts’ Local Food System: Perspectives on Resilience and Recovery”).

As always, the light that pushes back the darkness comes from all of us committing to a larger good. We invite you to join us and our sister groups and legislators to build a local and state food system that has vibrant farms, just and fair working conditions for farm owners and farm workers and access to local food for all.

Philip Korman is executive director of CISA (Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture), based in Deerfield. Learn more about its work at buylocalfood.org.

Healthy families and sustainable farms for every season

By Jo Comerford, Daniel Donahue, Anne Gobi, Hannah Kane, Eric Lesser and Paul Schmid

Boston Globe, Updated October 17, 2019, 5:00 a.m.

Wednesday is World Food Day, an opportunity to celebrate Massachusetts’ food system — from our fertile farmland, to innovative farmers and entrepreneurs growing and cooking delicious food, to an active network of programs and organizations working to alleviate hunger and improve public health through healthy eating. At the top of that list is a program that has earned national attention distributing more nutritious food to families for whom current food assistance does not provide enough to be able to afford fresh fruits and vegetables.

Massachusetts’ Healthy Incentives Program doubles purchases of local food by SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) recipients when they buy it directly from farmers markets, farm stands, mobile markets, and community-supported agriculture shares. Launched in 2017, the program has served more than 65,000 households, which have bought more than $12 million in produce through the program. Local farmers have used that additional $12 million in sales revenue to create jobs, purchase local goods and services, and carefully steward thousands of acres of farmland.

HIP’s success is a major priority for the Legislature’s 78-member Food System Caucus. Formed in January, the bipartisan, bicameral caucus was established to support and grow the local food system in the Commonwealth. The caucus chose HIP as a priority because it demonstrates the connections between public health, local food, food access, the local economy, and the environment, and proves that public investments in comprehensive programs can have far-reaching impacts.

Yet each spring since its launch, HIP has been suspended for several months when demand has exceeded funding. These suspensions have undermined the effectiveness of the program. For families, it has meant inconsistent availability of healthy food, a setback for those who are using the program to improve their health. For farmers, who plan their crops based on projected sales, the suspensions have meant significant financial stress due to lost sales.

Growing and eating healthy food are not seasonal. Winter farmers markets have been established all over the state, with some farmers selling storage crops like apples and squash, and others using greenhouses to grow greens, vegetable plants, and other crops year-round. And as one HIP customer said at a recent public health hearing, “Low-income people . . . don’t hibernate. We need to eat all four seasons.”

This year the Legislature once again showed tremendous bipartisan and bicameral support for HIP during the budget debate. But even with the increase in funding, the program will be suspended again this spring unless additional funding is secured in an upcoming supplemental budget. The caucus will remain steadfast in our advocacy and urge our colleagues and the administration to close the funding gap.

In 2015, the Massachusetts Food Policy Council accepted the Massachusetts Local Food Action Plan, a set of goals and recommendations for a sustainable and equitable food system. Support for HIP was called out as a top priority in that it addresses the plan’s four main goals: increase consumption of local food, create economic opportunity in the food system, help farmers protect the environment, and reduce hunger and food insecurity by increasing the availability of healthy food to all residents. The plan stressed the need for collaborative action toward these goals, which is exemplified in HIP’s partnerships.

Massachusetts has been a national leader in supporting healthy food access and sustainable agriculture for decades. Our 1986 program that provided coupons for Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children food assistance recipients to use at farmers markets was the first of its kind in the United States, as was the 1977 Agricultural Preservation Restriction program, which helps keep farms in business by permanently protecting farmland. HIP is the latest in a long line of innovative and successful investments in a sustainable and equitable food system for the Commonwealth, and it deserves to be funded adequately to fulfill its mission.

Jo Comerford, Daniel Donahue, Anne Gobi, Hannah Kane, Eric Lesser, and Paul Schmid are members of the Massachusetts Legislature and co-chairs of its Massachusetts Food System Caucus.

Letter Addressing Changes to SNAP and TANF

Members of the Food System Caucus authored the following letter to Secretary Perdue and Deputy Under Secretary Lipps, USDA, addressing the repercussions of changes to broad-based categorical eligibility, as well as, SNAP/TANF assistance programs.

Our Food Is Killing Too Many of Us

Improving American nutrition would make the biggest impact on our health care.

By Dariush Mozaffarian and Dan Glickman

Mr. Mozaffarian is dean of the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. Mr. Glickman was the secretary of agriculture from 1995 to 2001.

Published Aug. 26, 2019 Updated Aug. 27, 2019

The Democratic debate on health care has to date centered around who should be covered and who should pay the bill. That debate, which has been going on for decades, has no clear answers and cannot be easily resolved because of two fundamental realities: Health care is expensive, and Americans are sick.

Americans benefit from highly trained personnel, remarkable facilities and access to the newest drugs and technologies. Unless we eliminate some of these benefits, our health care will remain costly. We can trim around the edges — for example, with changes in drug pricing, lower administrative costs, reductions in payments to hospitals and providers, and fewer defensive and unnecessary procedures. These actions may slow the rise in health care spending, but costs will keep rising as the population ages and technology advances.

And Americans are sick — much sicker than many realize. More than 100 million adults — almost half the entire adult population — have pre-diabetes or diabetes. Cardiovascular disease afflicts about 122 million people and causes roughly 840,000 deaths each year, or about 2,300 deaths each day. Three in four adults are overweight or obese. More Americans are sick, in other words, than are healthy.

Instead of debating who should pay for all this, no one is asking the far more simple and imperative question: What is making us so sick, and how can we reverse this so we need less health care? The answer is staring us in the face, on average three times a day: our food.

Poor diet is the leading cause of mortality in the United States, causing more than half a million deaths per year. Just 10 dietary factors are estimated to cause nearly 1,000 deaths every day from heart disease, stroke and diabetes alone. These conditions are dizzyingly expensive. Cardiovascular disease costs $351 billion annually in health care spending and lost productivity, while diabetes costs $327 billion annually. The total economic cost of obesity is estimated at $1.72 trillion per year, or 9.3 percent of gross domestic product.

These human and economic costs are leading drivers of ever-rising health care spending, strangled government budgets, diminished competitiveness of American business and reduced military readiness.

Fortunately, advances in nutrition science and policy now provide a road map for addressing this national nutrition crisis. The “Food Is Medicine” solutions are win-win, promoting better well-being, lower health care costs, greater sustainability, reduced disparitiesamong population groups, improved economic competitiveness and greater national security.

Some simple, measurable improvements can be made in several health and related areas. For example, Medicare, Medicaid, private insurers and hospitals should include nutrition in any electronic health record; update medical training, licensing and continuing education guidelines to put an emphasis on nutrition; offer patient prescription programs for healthy produce; and, for the sickest patients, cover home-delivered, medically tailored meals. Just the last action, for example, can save a net $9,000 in health care costs per patient per year.

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Taxes on sugary beverages and junk food would help lower health care costs.CreditJenny Kane/Associated Press

Taxes on sugary beverages and junk food can be paired with subsidies on protective foods like fruits, nuts, vegetables, beans, plant oils, whole grains, yogurt and fish. Emphasizing protective foods represents an important positive message for the public and food industry that celebrates and rewards good nutrition. Levels of harmful additives like sodium, added sugar and trans fat can be lowered through voluntary industry targets or regulatory safety standards.

Nutrition standards in schools, which have improved the quality of school meals by 41 percent, should be strengthened; the national Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program should be extended beyond elementary schools to middle and high schools; and school garden programs should be expanded. And the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which supports grocery purchases for nearly one in eight Americans, should be leveraged to help improve diet quality and health.

The private sector can also play a key role. Changes in shareholder criteria (e.g., B-Corps, in which a corporation can balance profit versus purpose with high social and environmental standards) and new investor coalitions should financially reward companies for tackling obesity, diabetes and other diet-related illness. Public-private partnerships should emphasize research and development on best agricultural and food-processing practices. All work sites should demand healthy food when negotiating with cafeteria vendors and include incentives for healthy eating in their wellness benefits.

Coordinated federal leadership and funding for research is also essential. This could include, for example, a new National Institute of Nutrition at the National Institutes of Health. Without such an effort, it could take many decades to understand and utilize exciting new areas, including related to food processing, the gut microbiome, allergies and autoimmune disorders, cancer, brain health, treatment of battlefield injuries and effects of nonnutritive sweeteners and personalized nutrition.

Government plays a crucial role. The significant impacts of the food system on well-being, health care spending, the economy and the environment — together with mounting public and industry awareness of these issues — have created an opportunity for government leaders to champion real solutions.

Yet with rare exceptions, the current presidential candidates are not being asked about these critical national issues. Every candidate should have a food platform, and every debate should explore these positions. A new emphasis on the problems and promise of nutrition to improve health and lower health care costs is long overdue for the presidential primary debates and should be prominent in the 2020 general election and the next administration.

Farm tour for state officials highlights Westport agriculture

South Coast Today, By Kevin P. O’Connor / Herald News

Posted May 4, 2019 at 11:00 AM

WESTPORT — This was bigger than a thank you note.

State leaders wandered through farmland in Westport and South Dartmouth, sampling local oysters and wine and learning more about the food their assistance helped grow.

The legislature’s Food System Caucus took a Westport food tour Friday, organized by State Rep. Paul Schmid, D-Westport.

One stop was at Meatworks, the slaughterhouse, processing facility and retail store operated by The Livestock Institute, a non-profit formed to make a local slaughterhouse possible.

“We wanted to let state leaders see what their help made possible,” Schmid said. “There are 20 legislators here, so the word will get back to the Statehouse.”

Meatworks opened in September and is ramping up production, processing cattle, hogs, lambs and goats.

“This was an $8.5 million project,” said Andy Burnes, president of The Livestock Institute. “A key piece of the financing came from the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture.

“Today is really an opportunity for farmers locally to talk to legislators about what is going on with agriculture in Southeastern Massachusetts.”

The tour started at Westport Rivers Winery, 417 Hixbridge Road, moved onto Meatworks, 287 State Road, went to lunch at Riptide, 2065 Main Road in Westport Point, on to the Wainer Family Farm, 443 Barneys Joy Road, Dartmouth, and then back to Westport Rivers Winery.

“We want to give them an understanding of what they get with their support of the Food Ventures program,” Burnes said.

There was also an educational component, according to Adele Sands, superintendent of Bristol County Agricultural High School, Dighton.

“We process our meat here, our beef and pork,” she said. “It is what we serve our students at the school.

“It is great for our students to know about this facility and what is available locally. This is what our students are involved in. They will be taking over, someday, for the people now involved in agriculture.”

John LeBeaux, the state commissioner of the department of agricultural resources, said he got his education from Schmid, who convinced him, five years ago to consider The Livestock Institute for a grant.

At that time the grants were going to individual farms, LeBeaux said.

“I spoke with him and realized we could make a grant to a group serving many farmers,” LeBeaux said. “It worked out well.”

Schmid said the tour was designed to allow state leaders to see several forms of food production — raising livestock, aquaculture, planting grapes, hops and vegetables.

All of those enterprises feel the effect of decisions made at the state level, he said. So farmers are well served when state leaders understand the work they do and the problems they face.

“It is critical for them to understand the importance of food production,” Schmid said.

State Rep. Paul A. Schmid, colleagues forming Food System Caucus

The Herald News, Fall River, Posted Mar 26, 2019 at 6:40 PM

BOSTON – State Representative Schmid [D-Westport], has joined with his House and Senate colleagues at the outset of the 191st Session of the Great and General Court to form the Massachusetts Legislature’s Food System Caucus. Representative Schmid will Co-Chair the bi-cameral, bi-partisan Caucus, which counts just under one-third of the entire Legislature as members, with the five fellow founding members Senator Anne Gobi, Senator Joanne Comerford, Senator Eric Lesser, Representative Hannah Kane, and Representative Daniel Donahue. The Food System Caucus was founded with a mission to support and grow the local food system in the Commonwealth.

The following three primary areas, which were identified as priorities in the Commonwealth’s accepted Massachusetts Local Food Action Plan, will serve as the Caucus’ focus:

• Food access/insecurity: reducing waste, hunger and food insecurity while making available fresh, healthy food to everyone who lives in the Commonwealth.

• Farmland: protecting the land and resources necessary to produce food, while maximizing the environmental benefits of agriculture and fishing, and the preservation of agricultural land.

• Economic development: recognizing the significant impact to local, regional and state economies, supporting the increase of production, sales and consumption of Massachusetts grown food and creating jobs and improving wages in food and farming. United by the importance of advancing the Commonwealth’s local food system and a shared commitment to that mission, the Caucus includes members from every region of Massachusetts, with representation from the North Shore to the Berkshires and Worcester County to the Outer Cape. Together, the Food System Caucus will seek to advance policies and practices in Massachusetts which tackle hunger and reduce food waste, preserve land and natural resources while also maximizing the environmental benefits of agriculture, and promote Massachusetts-produced food and the economic development of the state’s food sector. In addition, the key external partner to the Caucus is Winton Pitcoff, Director of the Massachusetts Food System Collaborative, who will help ensure the Caucus priorities are aligned with and supportive of the Local Food Action Plan and that the Caucus priorities are disseminated to advocates and advocacy organizations for support across the Commonwealth.

The impact of the food system in Massachusetts is significant:

• About 1 in 10 workers in MA (426,000) are employed in the food system.

• The food system accounts for about 4.5% of all economic activity in the state.

• MA residents spend about $32 billion on food each year.

• Food processing revenue is about 10% of the states manufacturing revenue.

• There are 41,000 food businesses in MA and approximately 7,800 farms “Food production, supply, and justice has become a growing topic at the state house both in legislative and advocacy efforts, said Representative Schmid. Ensuring there is a group of legislators here to prioritize these topics and provide a voice for them is extremely important. We have much work ahead of us and I am excited to get started.” The Food System Caucus has designated the below six pieces of legislation as Caucus priority bills for the 191st General Court: Food access/insecurity: H145/S48 An Act relative to an agricultural healthy incentives program (Rep. Mark & Sen. Gobi) H1475/S869 An Act encouraging the donation of food to persons in need (Rep. Kane & Sen. Comerford) H591/S267 An Act regarding breakfast after the bell (Rep. Vega & Sen. DiDomenico) Farmland: H873 An Act to promote healthy soils and agricultural innovation in the Commonwealth (Rep. Schmid & Sen. Comerford) S482 An Act regarding a farmland protection and viability plan (Sen. Gobi) Economic Development: S301 An Act establishing farm to school grants to promote healthy eating and strengthen the agricultural economy (Sen. Lesser) In addition to legislative priorities, the Caucus will advocate for increased funding in the state budget for line-items that advance the mission. At the beginning of March, the Food System Caucus distributed a letter signed by 76 Representatives and delivered to House Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz requesting $8.5 million in funding for the state’s Healthy Incentives Program (HIP) in Fiscal Year 2020. Founded in late 2017, HIP supports local farms and the Commonwealth’s agricultural economy while also improving public health outcomes by providing vulnerable families and individuals with access to otherwise unaffordable fresh, healthy and local fruits and vegetables via SNAP incentives. To date, the Healthy Incentives Program has yielded $9 million in sales for over 200 farms across the Commonwealth and provided over 55,000 families and individuals with HIP incentives, demonstrating a cost-effective public-private partnership. With the support of advocacy organizations and stakeholder partners, the Food System Caucus will continue to champion innovative, impactful and effective policies to advance the Massachusetts food system, to the benefit of residents and businesses in each of the Commonwealth’s 351 cities and towns.