March 1st marks the beginning of the 37th celebration of Women’s History Month, a time of reflection on the often overlooked and vital role women have played in society throughout history. The month-long celebration of women initially stemmed from International Women’s Day, which was first celebrated on March 8th, 1911. The United Nations (UN) began sponsoring the holiday in 1975. In 1987, the National Women’s History Project petitioned to Congress to extend the weeklong holiday to the entire month of March.
People celebrate the holiday in various ways: demonstrations, educational initiatives, and customs that celebrate women (ie. giving women gifts and flowers). This year’s International Women’s Day theme is “#BreakTheBias,” in efforts to encourage calling out gender bias, discrimination and stereotyping of women and other minority groups. The theme of this year’s Women’s History Month is “Women Providing Healing, Promoting Hope” and seeks to celebrate the women who have provided unceasing care on the frontlines of the pandemic, as well as healing and hope beyond our current global circumstances.
On the heels of our Policy Team’s first successful roundtable filled with productive discussion and growth internally, we are excited to announce that on Friday, March 4th, in the spirit of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, we are hosting our second roundtable, “Share the Plate: Increasing Equity in the Food System.” This time in the year seeks to improve global equity for all people and we hope you can join the conversation. At the roundtable, we will discuss equity in the food system for all groups, including the minority female population in agriculture. The roundtable will have three guest panelists, who will provide insight and will help us better understand how the existing food system unequally serves and impacts communities, and what The Farmlink Project can do to create a more equitable future for food. Our goal in hosting this roundtable is to advance conversations about equity for our immediate community and for external stakeholders so that we can better understand how to create a more equitable food system and leave this discussion with next steps to work on as an organization.
So please join us as we begin conversations around equity and improve our food system. This is our first Roundtable to focus on both internal & external engagement and you all are invited!
These changes are great. But how’s it all going to be funded?
During the comment process, Farmlink, as well as other food rescue organizations and coalitions, raised critical questions about how the strategy would be funded and, as a result, which measures are feasible. In particular, we hoped for more clarity beyond the draft’s statement that the USDA would use American Rescue Plan Act and Inflation Reduction Act funds and the EPA would use Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds. Of the 86 programs or initiatives reviewed in the final strategy, only 15 are completely new programs announced in the strategy.
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The other 71 are existing programs or initiatives that either already have a food loss and waste focus or that the national strategy has repackaged as food loss and waste solutions. While we had hopes of new, innovative programs being included in the strategy, the good news with these 71 programs is that most, if not all, are already funded, meaning that they are not reliant on an increasingly turbulent Congress for implementation. Of the 15 new programs, which included the EPA’s new consumer education campaign and several new cooperative agreements with land-grant universities, only 2 had specific funding mechanisms. It has become increasingly clear that food rescue organizations and other stakeholders in the food and agriculture space should not consider this strategy as a new rollout of FLW solutions, programs, and funding but rather as an evaluation of the current resources and solutions and how each can be most effectively utilized to achieve the strategy’s goals. In particular, the framing of many of USDA’s programs as FLW solutions offers opportunities to utilize existing funding, data, and infrastructure to solve one of the United States’s most pressing problems.
Whats next?
Now that we have the strategy, it’s time to truly take advantage of the opportunities it presents. In the immediate future at Farmlink, we’re excited to continue optimizing Section 32 as a critical on-farm food loss solution as we anticipate significant surplus recoveries in the fall. As we move forward, we continue to advocate for dignity with food distribution, emphasizing cultural appropriateness and quality in every pound of food we rescue. As outlined in our comments, food rescue organizations are critical stakeholders and thought partners for the agencies. Our inclusion in the strategy as such is an opportunity we are taking full advantage of to help guide federal action to support farmers, feed communities, and heal the planet.
< BackMarch 1st marks the beginning of the 37th celebration of Women’s History Month, a time of reflection on the often overlooked and vital role women have played in society throughout history. The month-long celebration of women initially stemmed from International Women’s Day, which was first celebrated on March 8th, 1911. The United Nations (UN) began sponsoring the holiday in 1975. In 1987, the National Women’s History Project petitioned to Congress to extend the weeklong holiday to the entire month of March.
People celebrate the holiday in various ways: demonstrations, educational initiatives, and customs that celebrate women (ie. giving women gifts and flowers). This year’s International Women’s Day theme is “#BreakTheBias,” in efforts to encourage calling out gender bias, discrimination and stereotyping of women and other minority groups. The theme of this year’s Women’s History Month is “Women Providing Healing, Promoting Hope” and seeks to celebrate the women who have provided unceasing care on the frontlines of the pandemic, as well as healing and hope beyond our current global circumstances.
On the heels of our Policy Team’s first successful roundtable filled with productive discussion and growth internally, we are excited to announce that on Friday, March 4th, in the spirit of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, we are hosting our second roundtable, “Share the Plate: Increasing Equity in the Food System.” This time in the year seeks to improve global equity for all people and we hope you can join the conversation. At the roundtable, we will discuss equity in the food system for all groups, including the minority female population in agriculture. The roundtable will have three guest panelists, who will provide insight and will help us better understand how the existing food system unequally serves and impacts communities, and what The Farmlink Project can do to create a more equitable future for food. Our goal in hosting this roundtable is to advance conversations about equity for our immediate community and for external stakeholders so that we can better understand how to create a more equitable food system and leave this discussion with next steps to work on as an organization.
So please join us as we begin conversations around equity and improve our food system. This is our first Roundtable to focus on both internal & external engagement and you all are invited!
Women's History Month and Our Second Rountable Discussion
March 1st marks the beginning of the 37th celebration of Women’s History Month, a time of reflection on the often overlooked and vital role women have played in society throughout history. The month-long celebration of women initially stemmed from International Women’s Day, which was first celebrated on March 8th, 1911. The United Nations (UN) began sponsoring the holiday in 1975. In 1987, the National Women’s History Project petitioned to Congress to extend the weeklong holiday to the entire month of March.
People celebrate the holiday in various ways: demonstrations, educational initiatives, and customs that celebrate women (ie. giving women gifts and flowers). This year’s International Women’s Day theme is “#BreakTheBias,” in efforts to encourage calling out gender bias, discrimination and stereotyping of women and other minority groups. The theme of this year’s Women’s History Month is “Women Providing Healing, Promoting Hope” and seeks to celebrate the women who have provided unceasing care on the frontlines of the pandemic, as well as healing and hope beyond our current global circumstances.
On the heels of our Policy Team’s first successful roundtable filled with productive discussion and growth internally, we are excited to announce that on Friday, March 4th, in the spirit of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, we are hosting our second roundtable, “Share the Plate: Increasing Equity in the Food System.” This time in the year seeks to improve global equity for all people and we hope you can join the conversation. At the roundtable, we will discuss equity in the food system for all groups, including the minority female population in agriculture. The roundtable will have three guest panelists, who will provide insight and will help us better understand how the existing food system unequally serves and impacts communities, and what The Farmlink Project can do to create a more equitable future for food. Our goal in hosting this roundtable is to advance conversations about equity for our immediate community and for external stakeholders so that we can better understand how to create a more equitable food system and leave this discussion with next steps to work on as an organization.
So please join us as we begin conversations around equity and improve our food system. This is our first Roundtable to focus on both internal & external engagement and you all are invited!
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