OCFSN recognizes the importance of public policy in shaping our food system – what we have now, and what we want it to be. We are committed to building members' individual and collective capacity to influence public policy to support our shared vision of an equitable, sustainable, and resilient food system.  

We put this into practice by: 

• Convening and supporting OCFSN members and partners to inform, educate, learn from, respectfully challenge, build common cause, and take action together across our wide diversity of interests in the food system.  

• Finding ways to learn from members with deep public policy experience and expertise while actively including, bringing along, and learning from members with less policy experience/expertise.

• Walking OCFSN's equity talk in a meaningful, effective, and ongoing way, with practices specific to public policy. Examples from past work:

  • 3-part workshop series on DEIJ in public policy (Oct. 2020-July 2021) focused on allyship at the Legislature; 

  • Focused attention on policy priorities of farmworker and immigrant organizations, esp. PCUN and Causa

  • Developed a list of advocacy NGOs led by/focused on communities of color, to start tracking their legislative priorities (to be revisited for 2023 session).

What we do and how we do it has varied over time. Every year, we try new strategies and tactics. Every year, we make progress and also identify new challenges and opportunities. In 2017 we started with a Policy Committee. In 2022, we reorganized into two working groups:

1. Community Food Systems (CFS) at the Legislature

2. Public Policy Skills and Engagement Opportunities

We know that collectively, OCFSN has significant capacity to influence public policy (see 2021 OCFSN policy capacity assessment report), distributed across our members. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: OCFSN is not a food policy council or policy advocacy organization. Most OCFSN members engage with public policy in some way, but not all, and this is only one pathway for OCFSN's food systems work. OCFSN does not lobby at the Oregon Legislature or at the U.S. Congress. OCFSN does not develop/advocate for an OCFSN policy platform (e.g., at the state Legislature). OCFSN member organizations are the leaders and voices for that public-facing work, both individually and, increasingly, in coalition with each other.