March 2024 Food for Thought

Advocacy postcards through our Food for Thought program are back! We have sample messages to elected officials, blank postcards, and stamps waiting and ready to go at Extraordinary Ventures during our sort dates. If you are coming to volunteer or to drop off donated food, please feel welcome to join as you can (this time or in the future – the messaging changes each month). There will be a table set up with postcards and someone on hand to walk you through postcard writing if you’re new to it – it’s super easy! The time commitment is less than 5 minutes for a postcard. Let our legislators and other elected officials know that we are paying attention and that we insist they enact policies that prioritize our most vulnerable neighbors. 

Want to write a postcard from home? Go for it! Our sample messaging for this month is below. (Note: If you would rather email or call the elected officials, feel free! We encourage you to reach out in whatever way is most comfortable.)

Once you have contacted this elected official, we ask that you fill out this brief form to let us know that you have done so. It will only take a minute. This helps us to measure our impact! Thank you! 

Dear Rep. Davis: 

Nutrition programs and conservation efforts are two sides of the same coin: Please protect our health and environment by maintaining (or increasing!) support for SNAP and Title 2 Conservation programs.

Sincerely,

[YOUR NAME] 

Mail to: 

Rep. Don Davis 

1123 Longworth House Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20515

Some background: 

Our Food for Thought message was excerpted from the following sign on letter from the Medical Society Consortium for Climate and Health:

To: House Ag committees

We the undersigned, including the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health which is composed of 54 major medical societies and 25 state clinician groups representing approximately 700,000 physicians around the country, write in support of farm policy that prioritizes both affordable and nutritious food and clean air and water. To achieve this, we urge you to prioritize human health in upcoming farm policy discussions. This includes supporting both robust nutrition programs for economically challenged families and conservation programs that support soil health, air quality, and clean water.

Nutrition programs and conservation efforts are two sides of the same coin, and both are critically important in feeding families across the country. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program supports 12.5% of the US population (an estimated 41.2 million people, including 15 million children and over 1.2 million veterans). Programs like SNAP feed low-income Americans and foster healthier diets. At the same time, important conservation programs, like the Title 2 Conservation programs, can protect our health and environment, and restore healthy soil, water, and clean air, while simultaneously producing nutrient-dense food and are currently available to all 2 million US farmers. By safeguarding our food supply and farmland, these widely embraced conservation programs fortify soil resilience against the impacts of the climate crisis. They play a crucial role in safeguarding our nation’s water supply, effectively mitigating antibiotic residues, chemical toxins, and harmful bacteria. This, in turn, saves billions of dollars allocated for water decontamination efforts and the treatment of multidrug-resistant infections. Climate-smart practices included in the conservation programs also decrease air pollution and greenhouse gas production, while saving farmers money by reducing fossil fuel, chemical fertilizer, and pesticide use.

As health care professionals, we urge you to prioritize nutrition security for all and to protect historic investments in conservation programs. Food security and clean air and water are essential to the health of our patients and communities. Both of these priorities merit the resources to ensure a healthier future for all.