URGENT: Opportunities to support and educate about 10 Cents a Meal

Hello All,

I wanted to share this information FAR AND WIDE, if 10 Cents a Meal has ever inspired or impacted your work-- now is the time to share and educate our Legislators on the impact of this program. Our 10 cents team will be presenting on the impact of this program in front of the Senate Ag committee and the House Ed committee on Tuesday and Wednesday. If you would like to tune in, write a letter or show up (if you are in Michigan, PLEASE DO!). 

-------------------Here is the info-------------------

We are asking for all hands-on deck to show how big of an impact this program has made. As of yesterday evening, we now have two opportunities coming up next week to present to the legislature on behalf of 10 Cents a Meal. Here is what we can do:

1.Tune in and/or attend an event!

🎧 Tune in live to hear the testimony:

📅 March 17, 9:00 AM – House livestream: https://cloud.castus.tv/vod/misenate?page=HOME

📅 March 18, 12:00 PM – Senate livestream: https://www.house.mi.gov/Calendar

To attend the event in person please use this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfQ1W29aMzCHkbdIYo7Qerscio7oMMhLX176wZ6wSK1g4Ui0A/viewform

 

What: Testimony Presentation to the House Appropriations Subcommittee for School Aid and Department of Education

Date: Tuesday March 17th

Time: 9:00 am

Where: Anderson Office Building Room 326

Virtual Option to Watch

Total Presentation Time: 20 Minutes

Chair: Rep. Tim Kelly; Members: Glanville, Borton, Stekloff, Beson, Jenkins-Arno, Markkanen

What: Testimony Presentation to Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture & Natural Resources

Date: March 18th

Time: 12:00 pm (12:45 speaking time)

Where: Binsfeld Office Building Room 1300

Time Allotted: 10 minutes 

Chair: John Cherry; Members: Bumstead, Theis, Shink, Singh

2. Share your comment ahead of the committee! Deadline Monday March 16th EOB.

Whether you can make it in person or not, I am encouraging you to submit a comment on behalf of the program and then submit these to the committee clerks ahead of the presentation. Write a 4-5 sentence paragraph that explains the economic or social benefit this program has made to your farm, district, food service programs, ECEs, food hubs... etc. You may write more, but I ask that you please keep your statement to one page or less. If you are a food systems professional that does not fit into any of the categories above, please do the same, but from your unique perspective.

In either case, please give your name, your role, and the House and Senate district you live in. You can find your districts HERE. 

If you need help getting started, you can use one of the prompts below:

-Before 10 Cents a Meal I- , and now I-

-Through 10 Cents a Meal, my sales/processing capacity changed by-

-Working with 10 Cents a Meal has helped my students with-

-Working with 10 Cents a Meal has saved me this many dollars because-

-As a food systems professional, I have seen 10 Cents a Meal do- 

HOW TO SHARE YOUR STATEMENT - THIS IS IMPORTANT

When you are done, please send it to both committee clerks separately at. They are required to send it on to legislators ahead of the testimonies:

• bbaker@senate.michigan.gov

• nbareham@house.mi.gov 

• AND bcc me at amanda.brezzell@groundworkcenter.org on each.

Subject line: Statement on Behalf of 10 Cents a Meal

Note to include: Hello, my name is [name] and I am submitting the following statement on behalf of the 10 Cents a Meal Program ahead of this week's committee presentation.  

Then include your statement 

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That's it! Please share your comment by Monday March 16th, end of business. I appreciate your attention to this on short notice. These meetings have a tendency to get scheduled very quickly. We are working hard to get this program back on track and it's going to take all of us. 

May Tsupros  (they/them)

Director, Farm to Institution Programs 

Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems 

College of Agriculture and Natural Resources

Natural Resources Building, Room 312A

480 Wilson Rd., East Lansing MI

Michigan State University occupies the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary Lands of the Anishinaabeg–Three Fires Confederacy of Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi peoples. The University resides on Land ceded in the 1819 Treaty of Saginaw. Read here by land acknowledgements are not enough.