Ensure Farmers and Families Get the Support They Need in the Next Coronavirus Aid Package

Sustainable Food

 

Congress is working on its fourth pandemic aid package and food system workers, and families still have needs that Congress can address. Fortunately, there are several bills that could make it into the fourth aid package – but we need your help to ensure that happens! Email Senator Blunt and Senator Hawley today and tell them to ensure these bills make it into the final pandemic aid package! Be sure to include the bill number. Co-sponsorship builds the political momentum to help ensure that these bills move forward and get included in the final aid package.

Below are the bills MCE and our partners are supporting:

 

SNAP Online Delivery Support

    • Food Assistance for Kids and Families During COVID-19 Act of 2020 ( S. 3563) –  Representative Jahana Hayes (D-CT); Senator Bob Casey (D-PA). This bill would authorize public-private partnerships between the USDA, authorized retailers and community based organizations to support food delivery to SNAP users and provide funding to support grocery delivery for program participants who are seniors, immunocompromised individuals and others unable to travel safely to a retail food outlet such as a grocery store or farmers market.

Farm-to-Foodbank Support

    • Farmers Feeding Families – Coronavirus Response Act (S.3655) – Representatives Kim Schrier (D-WA), Cathy McMorris Rogers (R-WA), and Chellie Pingree (D-ME); Senator Bob Casey (D-PA). This bill will bolster the ability of food banks and food assistance programs to meet the needs of growing numbers of food insecure, while also providing much needed additional funding for purchases from small and medium farmers, by providing funds directly to States and state agencies and their food-bank partners. Includes funding set-asides to ensure targeted purchases of food from producers who rely on local agricultural food marketing—such as farmers’ markets, farm-to-table restaurants and farm-to-school programs.

    • Food Supply Chain Support (S.3840) – Sen. Stabenow (D-MI). This bill would include infrastructure grants to food banks and nonprofits to help increase their capacity and address growing demand, as well as grants to support new food partnerships that increase donations to food banks and decrease food waste through funding to states and tribes to purchase surplus food and a USDA Donation Reimbursement Program. The bill also includes provisions and funding to assist producers, handlers of agricultural products, and food processors and manufacturers with covering the associated costs of necessary changes and upgrades to practices and equipment to improve food safety in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Email your Senators’ legislative staff:

Dan Burgess, Legislative Director for Senator Blunt: Dan_Burgess@blunt.senate.gov

Joshua MacGregor, Legislative Assistant for Senator Hawley: joshua_macgregor@hawley.senate.gov

Not from Missouri? Find your Senators’ contact pages here.

 

Sample email script:

Hello [legislative staffer’s name], 

Please forward this message below to Senator _____:

Dear Senator ____,

[My name is ____ and I am a constituent from  _____, Missouri.]

[Include a basic description of the bill and the bill number, which can be found above]

[Please share how the bill will have impacts / value in your community or across the state]

Please ensure [bill name and number] makes it into the final pandemic aid package. 

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Let us know if you send an email here and if you get a response, please forward it to mvatterott@moenviron.org.