This toolkit was developed to equip a range of stakeholders to advance values-aligned food purchasing and food service by federal, state, and local governments:  

• If you are an advocate, use this toolkit to make the case for policy change, communicate your message strategically to decision makers, and inform and activate your community.  
• If you are a policymaker, use this toolkit to become a knowledgeable champion on the issue and develop a policy that builds on existing models and reflects best practices.  
• If you are a procurement or food service practitioner tasked with implementing a values-aligned policy, use this toolkit to understand the key considerations and best practices for effective implementation. 

Please contact Jessi Silverman at jsilverman@cspinet.org if you are working on a policy or interested in working on a policy.

Unhealthy diets are among the top risk factors for premature death and disability in the United States. Improving diet quality nationally has the potential to save billions of dollars annually in healthcare costs by reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer. However, a healthy diet—one that is rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and low in saturated fat, salt, and added sugar—is not the norm for far too many people in the United States. Many factors influence one’s ability to sustain a healthy diet, but we know that the food environment is a critical point of intervention. Often, healthy food and drink options are not available in the places where we live, learn, play, work, and heal. 

The Rockefeller Foundation estimated that the “true cost” of the U.S. food system, including externalized costs to health, worker wellbeing, and the environment is three times larger ($3.2 trillion) per year than what consumers spend on food directly ($1.1 trillion). These costs are inequitably distributed, with Black, Indigenous, and Latine communities disproportionately burdened by the negative impacts of our food system, including diet-related chronic diseases, environmental and occupational health risks, and socioeconomic disadvantages. 

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Taxpayer-funded institutions at the federal, state, and local level spend billions of dollars on food each year, including the military, correctional facilities, public hospitals, public parks, government worksites, public universities, and feeding programs for people with low incomes. Governments have a unique opportunity and responsibility to lead by example by ensuring that foods and beverages served and sold in public settings promote healthy diets. Furthermore, governments can catalyze a sustainable and just food system transformation by leveraging their substantial purchasing power to drive change throughout the supply chain. Instead, the vast majority of government food purchasing prioritizes the lowest cost at the expense of the public interest. 

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• Campaign Strategy Template | Good Food Communities, adapted from the Midwest Academy Strategy Chart: Download this template to help you outline the goals, organizational considerations, constituents, allies, opponents, targets, and tactics of your advocacy campaign.
• Sample Campaign Plan | Good Food Communities: This sample campaign plan provides example stages and steps to establish a local GFPP coalition, engage local food purchasing institutions and policymakers, secure a GFPP pilot at one institution, introduce a policy, and build capacity to sustain a multi-year campaign. 

Grassroots coalitions can effectively engage stakeholders across sectors in policy advocacy for values-aligned food purchasing, and in a way that lifts up the voices of those most impacted by food system inequities, such as Black, Indigenous, and Latine farmers, producers, and food chain workers and people who depend on institutional food service for nourishment. These examples of coalition materials from Good Food Communities members may be helpful to newer coalitions who wish to develop similar documents.

• DC GFPP Coalition: Governance Structure and Decision-Making Bylaws (2021): The DC GFPP Coalition developed a governance structure and decision-making bylaws, which support transparency and fairness in the decision-making process for all members.  
• Good Food Buffalo Coalition At-A-Glance (2020): This two-pager describes the mission, vision, role, and priorities of the Good Food Buffalo Coalition

• FRESH STARTS Act One Pager: Detailed Version | Simple Version (2023) | DC Greens: DC Greens and allies developed two one-page summaries to educate policymakers and the public about a bill that would improve food quality and nutrition in the District of Columbia Department of Corrections. Several key provisions of this bill were modified, integrated into the Secure DC Omnibus Amendment Act of 2024, and passed by the DC Council in March 2024.  
• In Support of Good Food NY: Enabling Municipalities to Engage in Values-Based Food Procurement (2023) | New York State Good Food Purchasing Program Coalition: This two-pager describes why the Good Food New York bill is needed, the expected impact, and how it addresses racial equity in the food system. The bill’s supporters also developed this complementary FAQ resource.
• Good Food Purchasing Law: Enabling State Institutions to Engage in Values-Based Food Procurement | Illinois Food Justice Alliance: This two-pager describes what the Illinois Good Food Purchasing Law would do, why it is needed, and the anticipated equity impact. 

• SPUR Supports the Proposed Standards and Goals for Food Purchasing in San Francisco (2020) | SPUR: This letter to members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors expresses SPUR’s support for an ordinance that outlines goals for improving food purchasing in hospitals and jails over the next five years based on the Good Food Purchasing standards. The ordinance was adopted by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on August 11, 2020.
• DC FRESH STARTS Act Hearing Testimonies (2023): On July 13, 2023, the District of Columbia Council Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety held a hearing on the FRESH STARTS Act, a bill that would improve food quality and nutrition in DC’s jails. Below are examples of testimony given by three public witnesses in support of the legislation. Several key provisions of this bill were enacted as part of the Secure DC Omnibus Amendment Act of 2024.
  • Jessi Silverman, CSPI
  • Winnie Huston, DC Greens
  • Leonard Bishop, DC Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner 7F08 

• DC Jail Food Campaign: Toolkit for Partners | DC Greens, Impact Justice, Don’t Mute My Health: This toolkit was developed to help DC organizations and individuals share information about inhumane conditions in the DC Department of Corrections food environment and encourage community members–especially those who have been directly impacted–to get involved. It includes sample social media posts, a sample email to councilmembers, and other resources. 

• How the Biden administration can transform food in federal facilities for millions of people (2023) | Jessi Silverman for CSPI: This blog post highlights the Biden administration’s lack of progress on its commitment in the National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health to update and implement the Food Service Guidelines for Federal Facilities. The post describes this missed opportunity to improve public health and catalyze food system transformation.
• Buying from Big Ag: How Government Food Procurement Reinforces Monopoly Power (and What We Can Do About it!) (2023) | Dee Laninga, Sarah Carden, Angela Huffman, Christian Lovell, and Joe Maxwell for Farm Action: This blog post describes the concentration of federal government food purchasing among the world’s largest and most abusive food corporations, and makes the case for prioritizing independent farmers and ranchers in government food procurement policies.
• Good Food for All: San Francisco Hospitals and Jails Commit to Improve Food Purchasing (2020) | Katie Ettman for SPUR: This blog post describes what led to San Francisco’s GFPP policy adoption and the anticipated impacts moving forward. 

• A decade-old CDC plan to curb obesity could be a gamechanger (2022) | William H. Dietz for The Hill: Former Director of the CDC Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity William H. Dietz made the case for President Biden to issue an executive order requiring implementation of the Food Service Guidelines for Federal Facilities during the 2022 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. 

• Senator Michelle Hinchey Bill Creates First-In-the-Nation Equity and Sustainability Framework for Municipal Food Contracts (2021) | New York State Senate: This press release announced legislation that would remove long-standing barriers to municipal values-aligned food purchasing in state procurement law.  
• Councilmember Pinto introduces legislation to provide healthy food and expand access to hospitality career training in DC correctional facilities (2023) | Brooke Pinto, DC Council Ward 2: This press release announced the introduction of the Food Regulation Ensures Safety and Hospitality Specialty Training Aids Re-entry Transition and Success (FRESH STARTS) Act of 2022 to transform food access in Department of Corrections facilities.
• D.C. Becomes First in the Nation to Set GHG Reduction Target for Food Purchases (2021) | Friends of the Earth: This press release praised the D.C. Council for passing the Green Food Purchasing Act, which aims to reduce emissions from the District’s food purchasing by 25% by 2030. 
• Biden Administration urged to improve federal food service guidelines (2023) | CSPI on behalf of the Federal Good Food Purchasing Coalition: This press release announced that 160 organizations signed a letter urging President Biden to issue an Executive Order to update and implement the Food Service Guidelines for Federal Facilities and establish values-aligned food purchasing standards for federal agencies.
• Ahead of Thanksgiving, Senator Markey, Congresswoman Adams Announce Legislation to Harness Federal Purchasing Power to Build a Just and Resilient Food System (2023) | Ed Markey, United States Senator for Massachusetts: This press release announced the Enabling Farmer, Food worker, Environmental, and Climate Targets through Innovative, Values-aligned, and Equitable (EFFECTIVE) Food Procurement Act, legislation that would require the USDA to use its purchasing authority on sustainable and healthy food, and would create a new pilot program to support equitable agriculture.
• Chicago Food Policy Action Council Applauds Cook County Adoption of Good Food Purchasing Program (2018) | Chicago Food Policy Action Council: This press release announced that the Cook County Board of Commissioners adopted a resolution calling for implementation of the GFPP in all county agencies.