Explanation of Bill

This bill, known as the "Expanding Access To Healthy Foods from Local Farmers Act" or the "EAT Healthy Foods from Local Farmers Act", seeks to amend the Emergency Food Assistance Act of 1983 in order to provide additional agricultural products for distribution by emergency feeding organizations.

Section 2 of the bill outlines the amendments to be made to the Emergency Food Assistance Act. These amendments include:

• Allowing state agencies to use funds to purchase priority agricultural products for distribution by emergency feeding organizations.
• Removing the requirement for donated commodities and allowing for purchased commodities to be distributed.
• Defining "priority agricultural products" as fruits, vegetables, dairy, meat, seafood, grain, poultry, or other commodity food products that are culturally or religiously relevant to the local communities.
• Defining "eligible entity" as a small business that is a grower, packer, processor, distributor, food-hub, or cooperative, and meets certain criteria such as being underserved or sourcing agricultural products from beginning farmers or small/mid-sized family farms.
• Providing federal funding to states for projects that purchase priority agricultural products from eligible entities and distribute them through emergency feeding organizations.
• Allowing states to enter into cooperative agreements with other states to maximize the use of commodities purchased under the project.
• Appropriating $50,000,000 for each fiscal year from 2024 through 2028 for the implementation of these projects.
• Requiring the Secretary to submit a report to Congress evaluating the effectiveness of these projects and making recommendations for improvement.

Section 3 of the bill requires the Secretary of Agriculture to create a working group to review and reconsider how Department of Agriculture procurement of priority agricultural products can support a wider range of agricultural producers and product distributors in a way that meets the Department's goals of nutrition security, access to culturally relevant foods, resilient food systems, rural job creation, and reducing concentration of resources in the agricultural industry. The working group must submit an annual report to Congress with their findings, suggestions, and recommendations.