Organizational Sign-On: Calling on the Illinois Department of Agriculture to Incorporate Community Input into Local Food Purchasing Cooperative Agreement Application
Illinois has an unprecedented, non-competitive, grant opportunity to receive $14.4 million from the Local Food Purchasing Cooperative Agreement Program to purchase food from local BIPOC and women farmers to be distributed to underserved communities in Illinois.
Only one application will be accepted for the entire state, meaning the Illinois Department of Agriculture will have to work collaboratively with other departments, policy advocates, community organizations, food distributors, and growers to implement this program.
We see this as an opportunity to approach emergency feeding programs differently than we have in the past. This should not be another bandaid, temporarily addressing Illinois’s inequitable food system. This is a chance to deliberately build a more resilient food system by ensuring those who have been historically excluded have a seat at the table to guide the creation and implementation of this program.
To support the Illinois Department of Agriculture in applying for this funding, 20+ organizations and community members came together to write a list of recommendations for how this opportunity should be approached. This letter has been sent to the Illinois Department of Agriculture, and we will keep a record of the number of organizations and individuals in support of these recommendations at the bottom fo this page.
See the entire letter below and use the form below to add your organization or name to the list of signatories.
To the Illinois Department of Agriculture and Department of Human Services,
The drafters and signatories of this letter - comprising Illinois food, agriculture, public health, emergency food, food distribution, and residential communities - call on the Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA) and Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) to consider these recommendations for Illinois’s application and program design for the USDA’s Local Food Purchasing Assistance (LFPA) Cooperative Agreement.
We see the LFPA as an opportunity to invest in building capacity of socially disadvantaged producers and processors while connecting to wholesalers, processors, and distributors who are for profit, non-profit, and community-led to sustain these efforts after this program has passed. By shifting the focus from emergency food allocation to building more resilient food systems, we ensure our communities are more equipped to handle the next crisis.
Per the 2017 Census of Agriculture, fewer than 500 of the approximately 70,000 farms in Illinois are owned by BIPOC farmers. This massive disparity has been the result of decades of exclusion and unequal access to the necessary capital, resources, and networks required to own or lease farm land as well as access financing, crop insurance, and market access needed to get through each growing season.
This unprecedented cooperative funding process is an opportunity to gather all who are invested in building a more resilient food system and establish the framework for a more collaborative network of food system support. Through this collaborative letter drafting process, numerous individuals, organizations, and agencies have expressed interest in supporting this program long term. In the spirit of collaboration and shared responsibility, we envision utilizing this support through establishing committees where all who are interested in supporting have the ability to plug in and lend their time, expertise, and talents toward making this funding stretch as far as possible.
Below, you’ll find the overarching values the group identified as crucial for guiding the two year program, followed by specific recommendations and examples on how these values could be incorporated. Your time and consideration is greatly appreciated, any questions, comments, or concerns can be shared with the group via the established google group.
The following values have been identified as essential to guide a successful LFPA program:
Racial equity: Redressing historical and present day harm against BIPOC growers and producers and their communities by acknowledging the need for this program stems from decades of deliberate exclusion, racist policies and biased practices.
Culturally appropriate foods grown using regenerative agricultural techniques: Prioritize growing, procuring, and distributing foods that support community and individual’s health, and affirms their cultural and religious needs and preferences. Considering growing practices is especially important for long term ecological health.
All involved parties experience long term benefits: Feed Illinoisians without asking farmers to compromise. Thoughtful and intentional community driven food distribution, from farmer’s field to family’s home.
Holistic collaboration: Take the time and care to ensure all voices are heard. Prioritize care and intentionality over efficiency.
We strongly urge IDOA to prioritize the needs of community members and organizers by including the following recommendations into Illinois’ application to the LFPA Program:
Establish advisory committees to guide and support IDOA in the implementation of the entire program. To ensure that all perspectives are included, we recommend establishing stakeholder advisory committees.To ensure geographic representation, we recommend that at least one representative from an urban area, a suburban area, and a rural area sit on each committee. Additionally, we recommend that at least one person with a strong and proven track record in equity is also seated in each group to inform and guide decision making. We also recommend that committee members are offered stipends to compensate their time and acknowledge their contributions to the success of the program. The drafters of this letter commit to providing ongoing support through the following working groups:
Technical Assistance: To provide support in capacity building, obtaining necessary certifications, business and financial planning, transitioning to more sustainable growing practices, etc.
Logistics: To provide support in the nuance required to aggregate and distribute food on a large scale to rural, suburban, and urban communities simultaneously.
Integration: To identify existing and advocate for new funding sources to maintain this program past the two year allocation.
Impact: To provide support in facilitating focus groups with community members, public health officials, dietitians, educators, and farmers to ensure communities are receiving nutritious food they understand how to prepare.
Evaluation: To support the tracking and analysis of how the program is functioning. It will be important to keep track of the impact this program has on farmers, food banks, and community members.
Focused resources directed to BIPOC farmers who've been historically excluded from land access and deliberate steps taken to build meaningful partnerships (Impact Committee): We recommend allocating funding for BIPOC growers as a first step towards undoing previous systematic harm, leading to a better likelihood that this program will live on past the designated two years. Other recommendations for addressing previous racial inequities include prioritizing land access and water resources for BIPOC growers to expand and increase their capacity and prioritizing sourcing from BIPOC farmers within 400 miles of Illinois, not just from within the state of Illinois.
Increase capacity for BIPOC, women, and veteran growers in the state of Illinois while growing the market for healthy, local food products (Technical Assistance Committee and Integration Committee): The first step to increasing BIPOC farmers capacity is to intentionally work to increase the number of BIPOC farmers in the state of Illinois through decreasing barriers to land and capital access. For existing BIPOC farmers, make participating in LFPA clear and simple, and make payments to participating farmers up front and well in advance of the growing season so adequate crop planning can be done. Additionally, increase sales avenues for products grown by BIPOC farmers within the state of Illinois by growing the local economy for healthy food. The program should incentivize farmers to diversify their products and facilitate access to additional revenue sources like retail outlets, farmers markets, and institutional wholesale opportunities.
Take steps to ensure fruitful dialogue and meaningful partnerships (Impact Committee): To effectively have state government work with BIPOC farmers, efforts need to be made to build capacity and cultural awareness of participating state departments to advance racial equity both internally and externally. Resources should be allocated toward racial equity training, particularly focusing on repairing historically harmful relationships and how to better serve underserved communities going forward. This should be done before listening sessions are planned to ensure the sessions are fruitful and effective. Once this work has been completed, participating departments should engage in regular listening sessions with historically excluded farmers and people experiencing food insecurity and accessing the emergency food system. Through these listening sessions, IDOA should focus on building an equitable distribution plan statewide and building a system that is profitable for all types of farmers, not a one size fits all model.
Decrease hunger in Illinois through strategic partnerships and long term investments with community driven food initiatives (Technical Assistance Committee and the Logistics Committees): This cooperative program is an opportunity to be critical of how things have typically been done to ensure we are identifying the best path forward in terms of equitable food distribution across the entire state. Utilizing existing community-led points of food access as aggregation and distribution hubs can help to bolster those efforts through additional funding and recruiting local residents to visit the space. The process of identifying which communities have existing food hubs will also assist in identifying which communities in Illinois need deliberate investment in creating spaces where residents have access to fresh, healthy food. Working with existing food hubs also increases the chances waste reduction practices like gleaning and redistribution can happen.
Safeguard the future of Illinois’ ecosystems by disincentivizing industrial and consolidated agricultural and economic practices (Technical Assistance and Impact Committees) : The easiest approach to this funding is to work with Illinois biggest farmers, aggregators, and distributors. This funding is an opportunity to be ambitious and construct a program that sets a model for holistically addressing multiple food system issues. Agriculture is one of the leading drivers of climate change, and we know that BIPOC communities, farmers included, bear the burden of climate disasters. We recommend this program prioritizes farmers and supports their transition to using sustainable models like regenerative soil techniques, diversified crop planting, cover cropping, integrated pest management; invests in clean transportation infrastructure (especially for last mile distribution); utilizes existing delivery systems to not add vehicles and carbon emissions (especially in rural communities); and devises a plan for waste-reducing initiatives like gleaning, value added products, and composting.
Advocate for making this a permanent program supporting food system resiliency in Illinois (Integration Committee): The aim of this funding is to build and grow, not to serve as a bandaid to the massive, complex issues causing food inequity. This will involve building relationships with partners who can advocate for new sources of funding, as well as identifying other funding opportunities and at local, state, and federal levels to support these efforts. We also recommend the state take advantage of other funding for food purchasing like Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program to ensure LFPA money can stretch as far as possible.
Define transparent measures of success and long-term evaluation (Evaluation Committee): It’s important both to document current resources and needs, and then figure out what metrics will be used to determine how successful the program is. Determining which underserved communities will be chosen for this program should involve both existing pantry networks like TEFAP and a separate metrics like percentage of SNAP use, census data, or a USDA definition to ensure none are left out. After the program begins, we would be interested in tracking the following: net positive impacts on producers in terms of profit, income, new market resources, training, equipment, etc., measuring and evaluating the outreach to socially disadvantaged producers, and feedback from collaborators.
Signed,
Organizations
Chicago Food Policy Action Council
Proviso Partners for Health
Real Foods Collective
The Lumpkin Family Foundation
A Just Harvest
Catatumbo Cooperative Farm
Chicago Patchwork Farms
Illinois Farm to School Network at Seven Generations Ahead
Star Farm Chicago
Loyola University Chicago
Cedillo’s Fresh Produce
Family Farmed
Central Illinois Young Farmers Coalition
ICNA Relief
Bee-utiful Honey
The Conservation Fund
The Sugar Beet Food Co-op
Illinois Public Health Association
Food Matters
Come-Unity Joy Garden
The Doula Part
Good Food in Healthcare Initiative
DeKalb County Community Gardens
Beyond Hunger
The Common Market
Northside Action for Justice
Advocate Aurora Health
Real Foods Collective
Avrom Farm
Eighteenth Street Development Corp
Food Works
American Heart Association
Feeding Chicago Families
Common Threads
Basil’s Harvest
Community Food Navigator
Midwest Food Bank NFP
Illinois Public Health Institute
The Neighborship Network
Southside Food Co-op
Illinois Stewardship Alliance
Proviso Partners for Health
Midwest Foods
Its All Natural
The Land Connection
Chicago Lights Urban Farm
Ujamaa Co-op Farmers Market
Southside Market
Advocates for Urban Agriculture
Produce Alliance
Individuals
Howard Rosing
Gris Buenconsejo
Joe Fujan
Kyle Jones
Alex Knapik
N. Eusufzai
Thomas Straus
Alexander G Pate
Ashley Lundgren
Saria Lofton
Grace Novacek
Benjamin Perkins
Autumn Moen
Taylor Maggos
Michelle Li
Nora Bryne
Jess Lynch
Laura Nussbaum-Barberena
Madison Evans
Katelyn Shepherd
Elaine Simon
Aliaa Eldabli
Shatisha Woods
Elise Kulers
Jeannine Wise
Sydney Coyle
Oscar Villa
Amy DeLorenzo
Elaine Simon
Chloe Roberts