SB 6483: Local Farms Healthy Kids Initiative

WA Legislation Supporting EBT at Farmers Markets

What is SB 6483? Eases state and school procurement restrictions to better enable school districts and state entities to choose local

Establishes a Farm to School Program that will facilitate the purchasing of Washington-grow farm products by schools

Creates the Washington Grown Fresh Fruit and Vegetable program

Outcomes Continued

Promotes school garden

Establishes a Farmers Market Technology Program

Establishes three Farm to Food Bank pilot programs

Expands and increases funding for the Farmers Market Nutrition Program

Funded at $1,490,000

Why is it so darn cool?

Precedent Setter! First time food was considered an environmental issue.

Coalition Builder! Created new strategic relationships between environmentalists and sustainable ag people.

Lessons from the Greenies

Ag people learned how the environmental community works together to promote agenda.

Helped mainstream the idea of spending money on local farmers to promote big policy issues.

Putting the Pieces Together

Tricia working with Mo on F25 to get funding with the goal of building up more markets for farmers.

Champions in House and Senate

Final Vote, 2008: House: 95-1 (Dunn voted no, 2 abstain).

Senate: 44-0, 5 excused

What's Happening Now?

Coalition is still working well due to strong personal connections.

New common ground issues continue to arise:

Formed Good Food CoalitionWorked on State Food Policy Council 2009 (passed and vetoed)Continued work on food policyWorked on WIC & FMNP funding for 2011 and state food procurement changesGood food folks worked to protect F2S and WSDA budget

Farmers Market Tech ProgramThe Basics: 1 Year $50,000 Report to Legislature in November, 2009

Washing State Farmers Market Association (WSFMA) would serve as an advisory committee.

WSFMA hired the contractor

Challenges to Capacity Building

Project was too big for existing staff.

Project length too short to build long term infrastructure.

Inadequate funding to run the program for two years.

Report deadline prevented the accumulation of one year of data.

Challenges to Capacity Building

Continuation of the program requires additional funding.

Currently, no infrastructure to continue to offer services.

Washington State University did not have the most efficient payment methods.

WSFMA had more streamline payment systems.

Victories

20 Farmers Markets, serving a wide variety of customers and communities, were able to accept EBT Cards.

After 2 years, 18 of those markets have continued to accept EBT.

EBT acceptance allowed for a significant increase in sales at participating markets.

Relationship Building

The program brought WSU and WSFMA together.

Another grant opportunity allowed the partnership to continue.

WSFMA received broader recognition due to the affiliation with WSU and the work they completed.

Lessons Learned

Building partnerships between multiple local agencies builds capacity for both organizations.

Relationship development takes time, and successful relationships depend upon the personalities involved.

Important to consider the organization's long term commitment to a project, before adopting it.