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Set a goal for buying local food in county institutions, and ask school districts to do the same

To: the Cambridge City Council

U.S. schools bought $789 million of local food in the 2013–14 school year, up 105% in two years, according to USDA. Districts with farm-to-school programs spent about 20% of their food budgets on local food (USDA 2019 Farm to School Census). We ask Middlesex County to set a local-food buying goal for the jail and other county institutions, and to ask school districts to do the same.

When it reaches the goal it’s handed to the officials named above at a public meeting, and their answer is posted online. This is a petition to your elected officials — like the clipboard at the courthouse door. It does not put anything on the ballot; that takes the state’s official petition process. Names are never shown publicly. County Commons — an independent, nonpartisan public-records project.