Proposition FF: Healthy Kids, Better Food Economy, Part 2
Note: This is the second part of a blog on Proposition FF and its economic and health benefits. Click here to read the first part.
How will schools make sure the Proposition FF money is used properly?
Proposition FF empowers participating school food authorities to create parent and student advisory committees to make major decisions on their own food purchasing, supported by local food purchasing grants which allow them to purchase Colorado-grown, raised, or processed products for school meals (SB22-087). Local communities would be empowered to co-create a school food supply chain that aligns with the values and needs of students and families. The bill opens the door for communities to connect with farmers like Roberto Meza to help feed our kids with healthy, locally sourced food. “It’ll give us a chance to build up our infrastructure…. that we know we have secured markets, and potential contracts, we’d be much more able to find a loan, feel secure in investing in our infrastructure or scaling our operations.”
This requires that we give schools the budget power to pay a fair price; while it takes some investment to serve quality food that helps kids learn their best, it beats the cheap and easy status quo, which only benefits the pocketbooks of big food corporations.
“On a systemic level, in order to address food access, we have to pay the fair price, so farm owners don’t have to cut corners by underpaying their workers, mistreating their livestock, or undermining the sustainability of their land.”
Roberto Meza, farmer
Does Proposition FF make our food system more reliable?
Proposition FF also increases the resilience and stability of our food system at large in the event that a crisis like Covid leads to the breakdown of fragile, long supply chains. School’s over-reliance on a few suppliers with a monopoly on schools lunches puts our access to food into a precarious balance, with climate change shifting weather patterns and the threat of extreme weather events like drought increasing, this is sorely needed.
Covid must serve as a lesson; “it’s not in our best interest to support that type of model or system in the future—it’s not sustainable, and we place ourselves at risk by only depending on those larger players, whose supply chains will break down in the event of another pandemic.” Meza and other local, sustainable farming operations are the key to bolstering food security in our state, by keeping our supply chain local. Meza says localizing the school lunch supply chain will create economic stability and resilience.
Participating school food authorities would also receive additional funds to increase the wages for individuals employed to prepare and serve food. These workers are currently making much less than a living wage; for example, Denver is raising its starting pay for food service workers to $18 this year, but we know that inflation is eating away at wage gains. One estimate by MIT places a living wage for an adult living in Denver with no children at roughly $20 an hour, $39.48 for an adult with one child, and $21.52 and 2 working adults with one child. In less highly resourced school districts such as Pueblo, these gaps are even wider; 2022-2023 base pay for a school cook is $13.98, falling far short of a living wage for an adult with one child ($30.95).
These workers are feeding Colorado’s children, but lack the economic security to feed their own families; Colorado voters have the power to change this by giving schools the funding they need to pay these essential workers a living wage.
How will Proposition FF promote tax and racial equity?
Not only does this bill proactively create a more just food economy, but it also takes a major step to address our upside-down tax code. The bill is financed by placing a cap on state income tax deductions for the top 3% of Colorado income earners. By ensuring the wealthiest folks in our state pay what they owe in taxes, Healthy School Meals for all will help us to invest in building a more human-centered local food system where every child has access to fresh, healthy food.
Meza’s farm, Emerald Gardens, prides itself on the dignity and sustainability its model of business creates, and how they are able to advance “the values of racial equity, dignity for farm workers, food security, and sustainability.” Promoting these values in a public institution that kids interact with every day allows our state to reimagine how we see food; not just as consumers, but as a part of an ecosystem and community that prioritizes shared prosperity for all Coloradans.
“It’s in our best interest to promote these values, not just for our own well-being but for that of future generations as well……As eaters, we’ll begin to think of ourselves not as passive consumers, but as active participants in co-creating and designing a food economy that promotes equity and dignity for all of our communities.
Roberto Meza
All communities and families should have a say in which food makes its way to kids’ plates, and how it affects our local economy as it travels from the farm to the lunch counter. A vote for Proposition FF is a vote to reinvest in Coloradan people, providing a historic opportunity for Colorado’s families, schools, and communities to come together for school lunches to meet the nutritional, social, and economic needs and priorities of Colorado’s children and the workers who help feed them.
The economy is not an intangible institution. It is the families, farmers, and workers who make up our. economy. Let’s demand that our taxpayer dollars are used to build food systems and a local economy that works for all Coloradans.
Look for Part 3 of this series out soon!
