By Girard M What constitutes a good meal? It may entail fresh veggies arranged around a piece of mouthwatering rib-eye with some roasted potatoes on the side, or maybe you’d simply prefer a sandwich. Whatever your ideal meal is, imagine having healthy food that clearly displays where it is grown, gives intimate details about how it is grown, how the food workers are treated, and how it’s benefitting the local economy. This vision is not so far out of reach, and is on its way to becoming a fantastic reality for multiple cities around the USA.
The LA Food Council spear headed this new food system initiative and it’s called the Good Food Purchasing Program (GFPP). There are several up and coming food programs in the US, but the GFPP is the most comprehensive of them all because it has five core values that it abides by.
Those five values are: (1) supporting local economy, (2) environmental sustainability, (3) nutrition, (4) animal welfare, and (5) a valued workforce.
It seems nearly impossible to say “No” to something as great as the GFPP. What really needs to happen is that community organizations, volunteer groups, the public, students, institutions, politicians, and other activist groups must ban together in order to give their full support for the Good Food Purchasing Program’s implementation into institutions within Buffalo.
The institution that is most thought of when discussing the GFPP is Buffalo Public Schools (BPS) because that is where there would be the greatest impact. Sometimes students will go to school without eating breakfast, due to family income or because they may live in a “food desert.” BPS has a free breakfast and lunch program, but from what I have heard the food could be healthier.
The GFPP wants to change how major institutions obtain their food, and it is a realistic and timely goal if enough people get involved. The public and major institutions have the purchasing power to reshape the food system that we all have grown to know, but not so much love.
Comments