(By Christina Stucker-Gassi, Healthy Food & Farms Program Manager) The Senate Agriculture Committee plays a vital role in shaping the Farm Bill. In turn the Farm Bill is a package of legislation passed roughly once every five years that has a tremendous impact on farming livelihoods, how food is grown, and what kinds of foods are grown. Covering programs ranging from crop insurance for farmers to healthy food access for low-income families, from beginning farmer training to support for sustainable farming practices, the Farm Bill sets the stage for our food and farm systems. Continue reading

(By Sidney Fellows, Program Specialist-on left- and Christina Stucker-Gassi, Healthy Food & Farms Program Manager-on right) NCAP is celebrating a decade of on-farm habitat work that has helped dozens of farmers and ranchers prioritize habitat projects that benefit pollinators and other valuable insects! We have contributed tens of thousands of dollars toward habitat projects that have lasting impacts. Not only do these plants provide vital nectar, pollen, and nesting material for numerous species, they also cycle nutrients and sequester carbon. In addition to these benefits, our work positively contributes to the rise in initiatives to plant more native plants. While we celebrate this work, we want to share with you some guiding thoughts for the next ten years. Continue reading

Pledge to Support Food for All Oregonians!  Many people in our communities do not have access to food assistance programs. Why? Because federal policy makers have excluded whole parts of our community from food assistance based on arbitrary factors like immigration status. In Oregon, we have expanded access for immigrant and refugee Oregonians in healthcare, public safety and other basic rights. Now we need to expand access to food assistance. Continue reading

You’ve seen updates from us over the past several months about NCAP’s leadership journey—and now, to kick off 2023, our staff and board are thrilled to announce our new leadership model! We are using a distributed leadership model made up of a collaborative team of staff, with support and oversight from our board of directors. Staff have been successfully using pieces of this model for the past 6+ months, and the board has officially adopted this as our organization’s leadership model going forward. Continue reading

(By Tommy Díaz, Healthy People & Communities Program Manager) Mes de la Herencia Hispana: Adaptándonos a las Necesidades de la Comunidad Latina Celebramos el Mes de la Herencia Hispana reconociendo a esta cultura y sus enormes contribuciones a nuestra historia y forma de vida. Las personas hispanas han hecho de estas tierras su hogar por siglos y son parte vital del constante intercambio cultural que ha formado a esta nación. En NCAP hemos hecho avances en diversificar nuestras filas y las comunidades que servimos, a pesar de haber sido una organización que históricamente ha sido manejada por y ha servido a la gente blanca. Continue reading