Highlighting RIFPC’s 2025 Good Food Policy Day in March — an annual celebration of the power of advocacy, held at the Rhode Island State House — were concurrent citations by state legislators in the Senate and House of Representatives honoring our contributions toward a more just and resilient food system.

“Rhode Island currently only grows about three percent of its own food, making us heavily reliant on outside supply chains,” Senator Linda Ujifusa (District 11) noted in presenting the Senate’s citation. “And although access to fresh, healthy food is a key social determinant of health, too many Rhode Islanders lack it. That’s why the Rhode Island Food Policy Council is so important.”

Also in March, two RIFPC staff members traveled to Washington, DC to attend the winter meeting and lobbying day held by National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, which RIFPC joined in 2023. Meeting with Rhode Island’s two senators and two representatives, Nessa Richman and Max Mason De Faria asked the legislators to do all they could in the midst of federal funding freezes and executive orders from the Trump administration that impact farmers, fishers, and people facing food insecurity.

In November, we hosted our annual Farm Visit for legislators at Tilted Barn Brewery, a past recipient of the Local Agriculture and Seafood Act award. Elected officials attending the event included Representative Michelle McGaw and Senator Sue Sosnowski, our 2025 Changemaker Award winners. Sosnowski and McGaw join previous awardees—Senators Lou DiPalma and Tiara Mack and Representatives Carol Hagan McEntee and Terri Cortvriend—as champions of a more just and resilient food system.

In 2025 we were proud to launch a resource aimed at supporting farmers, fishers, and other Rhode Island-based food entrepreneurs. The Business Support resource hub is a one-stop directory that includes 20-plus groups offering valuable training and services free of charge. We are updating the hub regularly with new opportunities.

In March, Rhode Island’s Department of Environmental Management awarded 33 local farmers, fishers, and specialty food producers with grants totaling $486,000. The annual Agriculture and Seafood Act (LASA) grants support the growth, development, and marketing of local farms, seafood harvesters, and food businesses. This twelfth year of LASA funding was likely more important than ever in supporting the state’s local food industry, as Governor Dan McKee noted at an event at Farm Fresh Rhode Island headquarters. “Given the unpredictability of federal funding support, state-led investment is critical to providing stability for our farmers, fishers, and food producers, while strengthening our state’s food security and economic resilience.”

“LASA is an amazing program,” says Maggie Longo, a Rhode Island Food Policy Council member who consults annually with interested applicants to help shape their funding requests and submit the applications for the last three years. The state’s online platform for the grant applications can be challenging to navigate, Longo says, and many applicants need assistance making their pitch for up to $20,000 in grants. “It’s an opportunity to think about their business,” Longo says of her assistance. “I help them articulate how that new tiller or other equipment will drive their business forward. I teach them to think that way.”

A three-year USDA Local Food Promotion Program implementation grant funding the Rhody Feeding Rhody Alliance wrapped up in September 2025. Partnering with Farm Fresh RI, Southside Community Land Trust, and the Commercial Fisheries Center of RI, RIFPC formed the Alliance to build sustainable market channels between local farmers and fishers and Rhode Island residents in need of fresh, local, culturally appropriate food.

In its three years of operation, the program boasted hefty numbers with significant impact, including:

• $1,339,322 in purchases from 273 R.I. farmers, fishers, & other food producers
• 187 new direct producer-to-consumer market access points established
• 168 RI emergency food access points offering more local food
• 80,537 food-insecure RI consumers accessed fresh, local food
• 181 jobs created and maintained

Late in 2025, the Council joined forces with United Way of Rhode Island to continue and broaden the work of the Alliance to address emerging food access needs. The entire Alliance will meet quarterly while three work groups meet separately to focus on supply chain issues, communication to community-based agencies, and policy and advocacy. Thanks to Rhody Feeding Rhody, the state’s local emergency feeding system “has become a larger, more reliable wholesale market for local producers and harvesters while also becoming more resilient to supply chain shocks from public health emergencies and climate-related disasters,” says Rachel Newman Greene, RIFPC associate director for network.

Close to 100 attendees gathered on September 8 at the Providence Public Library for Rhode Island Food Policy Council’s Policy Retreat. The annual event launches the Council’s work on selecting policy priorities for the upcoming legislative session.

The day began with an address from Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos, who shared information on her office’s “Fair Price Grocery Agenda,” a four-bill legislative package that addresses supply-chain fairness, digital pricing and consumer protections, and food deserts. “Council members were excited about how the legislation could lead to a fairer environment for food businesses while increasing Rhode Islanders’ access to fresh foods,” says RIFPC Associate Director for Network Rachel Newman Greene.

“It’s by far the biggest Policy Retreat we’ve ever had,” says Newman Greene. The record-breaking attendance (the 2024 retreat drew 65 attendees) “is indicative of the Rhode Island community knowing this is a time we need to come together to address the challenges around funding and policy. It’s time to step up and address the larger issues impacting our food system locally and nationally.”