WATERBURY – Congresswoman Jahana Hayes (CT-05), Chairwoman of the Nutrition, Oversight, and Department Operations Subcommittee on the House Agriculture Committee, joined U.S. Department of Agriculture Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Jenny Lester Moffitt and Connecticut Commissioner of Agriculture Bryan Hurlburt to announce Connecticut will be the second state in the nation to sign a Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) Cooperative Agreement – resulting in $2.64 million for the state to maintain and improve food and agricultural supply chain resiliency.
“I am thrilled that an additional $2.6 million of American Rescue Plan Act funds will be brought directly back to Connecticut communities to fight food insecurity and fortify our local food supply chain,” said Chairwoman Hayes. “This is just one more example of how, even a year after its passage, the American Rescue Plan Act is delivering on its promise: to provide critical resources to communities most in need. When the Agriculture Committee was drafting our section of the American Rescue Plan Act, programs to address skyrocketing food insecurity and support local farmers were a top priority. The funds secured in that bill will allow Connecticut Foodshare and the Connecticut Department of Agriculture to partner with local producers to get healthy, Connecticut grown products to households that need it most, and provide an invaluable opportunity for Connecticut’s small farmers.”
Congresswoman Hayes also celebrated USDA’s announcement in June 2021 that it would allocate $1 billion in American Rescue Plan Act funds to purchase healthy food for food insecure Americans and build food bank capacity. The $2.64 million allocated to Connecticut came directly from these funds. The announcement of this funding comes in addition to $250,000 for CT Grown for CT Kids programming and $600,000 to CT Foodshare previously allocated from the American Rescue Plan.
Congresswoman Hayes is a tireless champion of programs to address food insecurity and support small, local farmers. In December 2021, she chaired a Nutrition, Oversight, and Department Operations Subcommittee hearing examining nutrition distribution programs. Most recently, she introduced the bipartisan Scratch Cooked Meals for Students Act, which would create a $100 million grant program for schools to transition to a scratch cooking model and incentivize local procurement of fresh ingredients.