Got Green’s Food Access Team is actively participating in a community-led campaign to pass a “sugary drink tax” in the City of Seattle. Sugary drink taxes, designed to reduce consumption of soda, sports drinks and more, were first enacted in Berkeley, California and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Voters then approved similar measures in four additional U.S. cities during the 2016 elections.
Got Green’s role in the campaign is to ensure that proceeds from such a tax benefit the families and households struggling the most to put healthy food on the table. The electronic Food Security Gap Survey helped Got Green begin to identify which healthy, affordable food solutions are favored by families in the food gap, themselves. Two solutions rose to the top:
1. Extending the existing Fresh Bucks Matching Program to Seattle families in the Food Security Gap and adding grocery stores as additional sites where families can use matching bucks to buy more fresh produce. Currently the Fresh Bucks Program operates at 30 farmers markets and farm stands but is not yet available at grocery stores. (Favored by 82% of survey participants)
2. Partnering with local family farms to offer free or affordable “food boxes” to families in the Food Security Gap. Promisingly, King County’s Local Food Initiativesupported more than 1,000 people to participate in similar programs last year. (Also favored by 82% of survey participants)
In order for Got Green to move forward with confidence in advocating for these two solutions, we recommend that they continue surveying until they have responses from at least 100 participants. Because Got Green specifically organizes in communities of color, and the majority of our electronic survey participants were white, they plan to implement another round of surveys, face-to-face, at gathering spots in their communities. Members of this Project Team will support Got Green to administer the survey on mobile devices and analyze the final results. We hope our work can lead to positive social change for families in the Food Security Gap!