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October 13, 2026 The Right to Food Election Guides are geared toward conversations that build and sustain relationships between rights holders and duty bearers. Advocates for food systems transformation, start your engines! The midterms are upon us and they offer an opportunity to participate in shaping the world we want to live in. This includes decisions about the food we want to produce and eat, and the soil, air and water we want to keep clean for future generations! The

April 2026 By Heather Retberg and Craig Hickman co-authors of Maine’s Right to Food Constitutional Amendment Maine is the first and, at the time of publication, the only state in the nation to enshrine the right to food in its state constitution. In 2021, Maine advocates’ efforts led to constitutionalizing the right to food in its Declaration of Rights. Maine’s right to food movement is rooted in the need to address the challenges facing Maine’s communities and its local and

Right to Food Learning and Action Fellows (from L to R): Tyler Yarbrough (MS), Emily Settlecowski (CO), Peyton Varma Yourch (NY), Carolina Rascon (WV), Erica Hall (FL), Brizai Gomez Cortes (CO). August 27, 2026 That’s a Wrap! The 2025-2026 Right to Food Learning and Action Fellows just concluded a year of learning and working together. Based in five states, this inaugural cohort included six Fellows who work to strengthen the right to food in law, policy, and practice at loc

August 17, 2026 By Josh Caplan, Summer Intern with the National Right to Food Community of Practice Food Sovereignty Cohort meets at GoFarm to learn about Seed Saving. When Honolulu's Charter Commission convened to revise the city and county's governing document, it drew in a committed group of local advocates who saw a rare opening to formally establish a right to food. Kima Wassel Hardy, an urban agroecologist and community organizer based in Honolulu, was one of them. For

August 17th, 2026 By Kima Wassel Hardy, Urban Agroecologist & Founder, Earth Innovation Members of the Right to Food Coalition attend a Honolulu Charter Commission meeting. Kima Wassel Hardy, left. I would like to begin this story at the end. On June 1, 2026, the Honolulu Charter Commission officially killed a historic and unprecedented community-led effort to enshrine food as a human right within the local governance structure of the City and County of Honolulu, Hawai'i. The

August 6, 2026 By Josh Caplan, Summer Intern with the National Right to Food Community of Practice Photo: Misty Lyn Bergeron On July 1, 2026, the Michigan House of Representatives unanimously adopted HR0340, declaring that July 1st would now be recognized as “Food Day” in the state of Michigan. The resolution honors the state’s food producers and food assistance organizations while raising awareness of food insecurity and encouraging Michiganders to support local agriculture

July 6, 2026 By Nessa Richman and David Folcarelli Ensuring a true right to food for all people—the universal human right to feed oneself in dignity—is an enormous undertaking. It requires willing governments to build systems where everyone has reliable, continuous access to adequate, nutritious, and culturally acceptable food. In the United States, despite the national empowerment of a united, pro-hunger front made up of political and corporate powers, a new path towards es

June 18, 2026 By Brenda Biddle In my last blog post, I discussed Brazil’s recent anti-hunger strategy, Brasil Sem Fome (BSF, Brazil Without Hunger), which has rapidly reduced food insecurity in a country long marked by deep inequity. Brazil's recent progress against hunger did not emerge overnight. It grew out of decades of local experimentation, national coordination, and sustained collaboration between government and civil society. In this follow-up post, I explore the less

June 15, 2026 By Brenda Biddle In the monthly membership meeting in April 2026, the National Right to Food Community of Practice welcomed colleagues, friends and movement leaders to discuss Brazil's historic achievement in swiftly diminishing hunger to unprecedented rates through "people-first" local food access policies and by granting every Brazilian the human right to adequate food in national law. More than 100 people participated in the meeting to explore the processes,

June 9, 2026 From 2022-2024 Dr. Kayleigh Garthwaite – who lives in the Northeast of England – traveled across Britain, Canada, the U.S. and some cities in Europe, working with food banks, co-ops, urban farms and food justice organizations. In her newest book Hunger Inc,: Building Solidarity Beyond the Food Bank, she documents similarities in the limitations of institutionalized charity across "advanced capitalist countries" and analyzes how food aid absolves governments of th

June 4, 2026 By Refat Muwalla, recent graduate at The University of Central Florida This spring, I had the honor of interning at the National Right to Food Community of Practice. I am an aspiring attorney with a passionate interest in public policy, human rights, and social equity. I wholeheartedly believe that basic human rights are important, yet non-inclusive for everyone. During my time with the Community of Practice, I conducted a scoping and policy analysis project in w

May 7, 2026 By Carolina Perez, Avery Friedman, and Abigail Matherne, Interns, University of Miami School of Law, Human Rights Clinic Photo by Kevork Djansezian for Getty Images As 2025 ended, the United States—the world’s largest economic power—slashed food assistance for thousands and eliminated it entirely for many more. The new year brought a new reality: elected leaders had quite literally taken food off American tables. Photo by Oregon Center for Public Policy

April 2, 2026 By Amanda Sarmientos, Yasmin Rizvi, and Meg Williams, Legal Interns, Human Rights Clinic , University of Miami School of Law & Tamar Ezer , Acting Director, Human Rights Clinic, University of Miami School of Law Photo courtesy of WeCount!’s Planting Justice Campaign While on paper U.S. federal law protects breastfeeding, in practice these legal protections fall short as breastfeeding mothers still lack the support they need to feed their infants. Nearly one in

Photo credit: Govan Community Project, Glasgow March 18, 2026 By Alysia Jimenez, MSc Food Security (LinkedIn) In the United States, food insecurity is often addressed through a vast network of food banks, pantries, and charitable meal programs. These services matter. They alleviate hunger and provide critical relief in moments of crisis. Yet, service-based models have limits. Emergency food systems are inescapably fragile, reactive, and dependent on surplus and philanthropy.

March 5, 2026 By Daniel Chian, National Right to Food Community of Practice Summer Intern, Oberlin College Peyton Varma Yourch speaking alongside the Schenectady County Food Council at the NYS Capitol building, advocating for increased funding for food security programs like HPNAP and Nourish NY as well as a SNAP minimum benefit of $100. For our fifth and final entry in the Right to Food Learning and Action Fellows Spotlight Series, we would like to introduce Peyton Varma Y

March 4, 2026 By Genice D. Nadal, Alexzandrea Bia Bartle, and Ana Luiza Potgornik Ferreira, Legal Interns, Human Rights Clinic , University of Miami School of Law & Tamar Ezer , Acting Co-Director, Human Rights Clinic, University of Miami School of Law Photo by Steve Adams via Unsplash . Picture this: a mother in public housing starts a small garden outside her unit. Maybe she’s planting collard greens that remind her of home or tomatoes she can stretch into three meals. The

February 6, 2026 Photo credit: Gayatri Malhotra The right to food is about creating and sustaining the conditions needed for everyone to access the food that meets their social, cultural, and nutritional needs, both now and in the future. We cannot create these conditions while people are afraid to leave their homes. We cannot build a rights-based society while people live in fear of being detained, imprisoned, or killed as they go about their lives. Over the past weeks

January 20, 2026 By Daniel Chian, National Right to Food Community of Practice Intern, Oberlin College For the fourth entry in our Right to Food Learning and Action Fellows Spotlight Series, we are happy to introduce Tyler Yarbrough. As the Director of Mississippi Delta Programs at Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) a nd food system leader with the Center for Mississippi Food Systems, Tyler works to empower local communities by providing them with nutritious food and

December 16, 2025 Image: Family Benefit Support The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as ‘food stamps’) supports an average of 41.7 million people per month to access nutritious food in communities across the United States. It is the most effective anti-hunger program our country has, and the investment made in supporting families and individuals to afford food with dignity and choice is an economic multiplier that ripples through local econom

December 15, 2025 Image: Tristate Homepage When SNAP benefits were threatened and then withheld from millions of people during the final weeks of the federal shutdown in November, it hit a nerve across the political spectrum. Through the noise and chaos of those weeks, it might have been easy to miss a common belief that presented itself in the background - a majority of us shared a concern about cutting off nutrition assistance. More than three quarters of likely voters tho