Election Conversation Guides - a Right to Food lens for 2026
Elections are important opportunities for organizers and advocates to engage directly with candidates seeking elected office. These guides include sample questions to support conversations with local and state candidates about how they will use their role in office to promote a food system that nourishes people and the planet.
Conversations with Local and State Candidates
Includes tips for:
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Engaging with candidates and drafting questions
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Seeing your priorities as part of a right to food
Sample questions about:
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SNAP and Federal Cuts to Food Assistance
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School Meals and Local Procurement
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Support for Local Farmers
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Climate and Environmental Protection
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Cost of Living and Affordability
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Carceral Nutrition
Conversations with Candidates for State Legislature in Maine
Local context and sample questions about:​
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School Meals and Local Procurement
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Agriculture Funding and Infrastructural Support
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Climate and Environmental Protection
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SNAP and Federal Cuts to Food Assistance
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Cost of Living and Affordability - food, housing, healthcare
Conversations with Candidates for the Colorado State Legislature
View Guide for Denver Metro Area
Local context and sample questions about:​
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SNAP and Federal Cuts
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Cost of Living - Grocery Prices and Housing
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Access to Clean Air and Water
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Access to Local Food
Conversations with Candidates for State Legislature in Washington
Local context and sample questions about:​
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Cuts to SNAP, WIC, and Federal Assistance
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Grocery Prices and Affordability
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Tax Fairness
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Small and Midsize Farm Viability
Overview
These guides are based on a shared understanding that food is a human right. They locate issues that matter to community and local advocates who are working to improve the food system within a right to food framework. This helps us build and strengthen relationships with candidates for local and state office.
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Who is this for?
This guide is for anyone who believes food is a human right and wants to elect politicians in their local area who believe that as well.
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Why now?
There is a window of opportunity ahead of the 2026 election for community organizers and advocates to build and strengthen relationships with candidates for local office and to shift the narrative towards one where food is recognized as a human right.
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Using a Right to Food Lens
A rights-based approach emphasizes the importance of accountable relationships between elected officials and their constituents. This means the guide is geared toward conversations that build and sustain relationships of accountability, based around issues that matter to community and local advocates.