Building a more equitable, healthy, and sustainable District food system

The DC Food Policy Council (FPC) is a coalition of local food leaders and government representatives appointed by Mayor Muriel Bowser to promote a more equitable, healthy, and sustainable food system in the District. The FPC creates Community Advocacy Guides on District food-related legislation to educate and inform residents about the legislation and how to testify.

Download a printable version of this Community Advocacy Guide here. Read the full bill discussed in this guide here. Sign up to testify at the hearing or submit a written testimony here.

Background 

The District has made several commitments to advance a more sustainable and equitable food system, including leveraging its more than $62 million in annual food spend to drive values-based procurement. Values-based procurement (VBP) is an approach where institutions use their purchasing power to expand local sourcing to support local economies, improve nutrition, reduce food-related carbon emissions, and improve workforce conditions and compensation. Currently, there is no centralized system to help District food-procuring agencies meet environmental, nutrition, and economic requirements. This gap makes it challenging to align procurement practices with the District’s food goals. 

The Food Policy team has compiled all food-related legislation and District-wide commitments made by the Mayor and passed by Council – such as incentivizing local purchasing through the Healthy Tots Act of 2014 and adopting the Good Food Purchasing Program (GFPP) for all DC Public Schools. Assessing the District’s success in meeting these commitments has been challenging: While the District’s Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE) has the authority to collect and annually report food-related carbon emissions data, no agency currently has the mandate to measure progress towards other food values, such as local sourcing, nutrition and valued workforce. 

The Food Policy team has worked on procurement-related initiatives for several years. The team has both attended DC GFPP Coalition meetings to advance VBP and served on the Coalition’s Executive Committee. It has also managed funding for two separate analyses on benefits of a Central Food Processing Facility, and – alongside DOEE – convened food-procuring agencies through a Community of Practice to share best practices for improving institutional food quality.  

With support from a federal grant, the Food Policy team was able to add a full-time staff member dedicated to sustainable food procurement in August 2025. This increased capacity has enabled the Food Procurement Community of Practice to meet monthly rather than quarterly, accelerating knowledge sharing across agencies. However, this federal funding ends in early 2027. This proposed legislation, if funded, would give them the capacity to continue this work beyond the grant period. 

The Food Policy team also engages in regional and national coalitions on sustainable food procurement – such as the VBP Learning Network, the DC GFPP Coalition, the C40 Food Working Group, and the DMV Food Council Collaborative. Despite this expertise and network, the Food Policy team currently lacks the authority to implement procurement changes.  

Lastly, the Food Policy Council submits a formal assessment on food security and food access to D.C. Council via the Mayor, while most peer cities release a similar document every 3-5 years. The Food Policy Council is developing a more streamlined approach (e.g. a data dashboard) to be able to report this data annually – in addition to data on other areas of the food system including urban agriculture, food waste, workforce development, and food procurement – which would reduce the workload required to produce a formal assessment.  

What does this bill do? 

This legislation expands the authority of the Food Policy Council and Director to evaluate food procurement practices across the District government by allowing the Food Policy Team to:  

• Advise agencies on developing solicitations and contracts that meet all applicable District laws and standards, require more vendor transparency, and incorporate best practices for nutrition, sustainability, and local food procurement 
• Collaborate directly with the Office of Contracting and Procurement (OCP) to ensure food service solicitations reach a wide audience of high-quality prospective vendors 
• Serve on evaluation panels to contribute industry and food sector subject matter expertise in procurement determinations 
• Develop and maintain food procurement standards, practices, and templates to be used in all procurements, in collaboration with OCP, DC Health, Department of Small and Local Business Development (DSLBD), and DOEE 

Additionally, this legislation impacts reporting requirements for the Food Policy Council and Food Policy team. It would:  

• Require the Food Policy team to compile all food purchasing data and track the impact of food purchases across the District 
• Enable the Food Policy team to advise all agencies on solicitations and contracts that would, when implemented, require vendors to share more information about the food products they are buying 
• Expand the scope of the Food Policy Council’s Food Systems Assessment (FSA) report to include data on food jobs, urban agriculture, and procurement, while reducing the FSA reporting frequency from annually to every three years to balance workload 

How can I give input on this bill? 

The DC Council’s Committee on Health, chaired by Councilmember Christina Henderson, has scheduled a public hearing in March 25, 2026 at 9:30 am. 

Anyone can testify on this bill either in person or in writing, even if you are not a DC resident. To testify in person, you must register online at least 2 business days before the hearing. On this hearing’s page of the Council’s Hearings website, click the “Register to Testify” box, then complete and submit the form. You can also call the Committee by phone at (202) 724-4902 at least 2 business days before the hearing. Please provide your name, address, telephone number, email address, and indicate that you wish to testify on the Food Policy Council Procurement Amendment Act. If you are testifying on behalf of an organization, please provide the name the organization and your role with the organization.  

If you can’t testify on the day of the hearing, you can submit a written testimony by clicking the “Submit Testimony” box on this hearing’s page of the Council’s Hearings website and completing the form. It is encouraged, but not required, to submit your testimony in writing even if you will be testifying in person. Written testimonies must be submitted by two business days before the hearing. 

How to testify at the hearing: 

As an individual, you will have 3 minutes to speak. If you represent an organization, you will have 5 minutes to speak. Your written testimony can be as long as you like and include more information than you read aloud in your allotted time. Remember that one page of double-spaced text (about 250 words) takes about 2 minutes to read aloud. After you testify, Councilmembers may ask follow-up questions about your testimony. It’s ok if you’re not an expert or don’t know the answer to a question. You can always say, “I’ll get back to you.”  

You will not be assigned a specific time to testify but rather you will be expected to be present when your name is called. You may estimate when this will be based on the witness list that is shared the day before the hearing. When it is your turn to testify, you will be called on. The hearing will be publicly visible. 

Tips on providing testimony: 

Be sure to practice reading your testimony aloud before the hearing and time how long it takes you. Practicing will help stay within the time limits and make your points clearly and succinctly.