A group of Shapiro administration officials and food industry leaders met behind schedule last month to begin work on developing and implementing strategies to improve food safety and availability in Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania Food Policy Council was created by executive order from former Gov. Tom Wolf in December 2022 in the wake of skyrocketing food prices and the dissolution of pandemic-era nutrition programs.
The council, which includes nine interagency members of the Shapiro administration and a 16-member advisory group made up of representatives from the food industry, is tasked with working “collectively improve food and nutrition security, public health, environmental sustainability, local food systems, and reduce food waste,” according to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.
The department’s website says the board will meet “at least quarterly,” but no minutes from the first meeting are currently available online.
In February, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro appointed Dawn Plummer, former executive director Pittsburgh Food Policy Councilto serve as director of the statewide political council.
“There is no more important goal to feed our future than ensuring that all Pennsylvanians have access to healthy, fresh food,” Plummer said.
Data showed that at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, approximately 2 million Pennsylvanians faced food insecurity.
Of the 2 million Pennsylvanians who will face food insecurity in 2020, 630,000 are children, according to data Feeding America with data.
The same data showed that at the time, nearly 1 in 20 Pennsylvanians were “recently food insecure,” meaning they did not have reliable access to adequate, nutritious meals during the pandemic.
Food and energy costs are not immune to constant change inflationwho saw the price of basic ingredients such as eggsbread and other agricultural products are rising rapidly, even though increased pandemic-era food benefits ended earlier this year.
As a pandemic-era lifeline runs out this month, Pennsylvania food banks are preparing for increased needs
United States Department of Agriculture reports that in April 2023, food prices were 7.7% higher than a year earlier in April 2022.
According to the USDA, all food prices are expected to enhance by a total of 6.2% in 2023, with a forecast range of 4.9-7.5%.
