What actions would you take as a state legislator to protect and strengthen Washington’s food security safety net, including both public nutrition programs and the food banks and food pantries serving communities across the state?

I’ll fight to protect and expand core nutrition programs by championing full funding of Washington’s Food Assistance Program, which fills the gap for immigrants and others excluded from federal SNAP. As someone in a mixed-status family and having spent half my career organizing with undocumented workers, I know how urgently the state needs to backfill cuts and restrictions on federal SNAP. We can’t just let food banks absorb the difference. I’ll also support keeping WIC and school meal programs (like Washington’s universal free school meals) fully funded, so family budgets are kept whole.  I will also fight to fund the emergency food system like the infrastructure it is. Food banks are public infrastructure for hundreds of thousands of families, and the state budget should treat them that way. I’ll advocate for sustained, inflation-adjusted funding for the Emergency Food Assistance Program (EFAP) and state food bank funding, rather than the boom-bust cycle where support spikes during a crisis and then gets cut the next budget round.  I’ll also push to simplify enrollment and eliminate unnecessary barriers, like asset tests and cumbersome recertification, that keep eligible families from accessing Basic Food, WFAP, and WIC in the first place. A benefit nobody can access isn’t a benefit.  I see access to food as an affordability issue, which is the driving force behind our campaign to challenge a status quo that has allowed costs to skyrocket. Hunger is inseparable from housing costs, childcare costs, and low wages. As rent and childcare increasingly eat into someone’s paycheck, groceries get cut. That’s why my platform on housing affordability and universal childcare is also a food justice policy. The goal isn’t just a stronger food bank system. We should be building a Washington where fewer families need one.

What have you done to understand food insecurity in the communities you seek to represent—including engaging with people experiencing hunger or local hunger-relief organizations—and what policies would you prioritize to address the root causes of hunger and ensure Washington residents can afford and access the food they need?

I’ve spent the last three years organizing alongside workers in underpaid industries, like the restaurant industry, food delivery gig economy, and domestic work industry. Many of these workers live or work in the 43rd district, where costs of housing, groceries, restaurant food, and childcare have far outpaced wages. I see the root causes of hunger in Washington as inextricable from the same handful of out-of-control costs, like housing, childcare, healthcare, and wages that haven’t kept pace. That’s what I’d focus on to reduce barriers to nutritious food.  1. Housing. The cost of housing has doubled in the last 20 years and too little has been done to address that. I’d prioritize increasing the supply of affordable and middle-income housing, strengthening tenant protections against rapid rent increases and junk fees, and making sure state housing investments target the communities facing the sharpest cost burdens.   2. Universal childcare. Childcare costs can rival or exceed rent for families with young kids, and increasingly they rival the cost of in-state tuition here in Washington. Making childcare affordable and accessible frees up real household income immediately and lets more parents go back to work or work more hours, which addresses hunger at the source. Fighting for universal childcare is a foundation part of my platform about putting more money in more people’s hands.  3. Raising wages and enforcing labor standards. I support continuing to raise the minimum wage and enforcing overtime, scheduling, and other labor standards so working families can actually predict and plan around their income. I’ve been incredibly proud to build my career alongside workers in Seattle protecting full funding of the Office of Labor Standards, which enforces labor law and puts money directly back into workers’ pockets, meaning more money for working people to feed their families.  4. Strengthening public benefit programs. I will fight tirelessly for full funding of WFAP, WIC, and school meals, simplified enrollment so eligible families aren’t screened out by red tape, and state readiness to backfill federal SNAP cuts if they come. These programs are proven, efficient, and cheaper than the downstream costs of untreated hunger.  5. Addressing food access. In some neighborhoods, hunger is both a symptom of costs and the fact that there’s no full-service grocery store nearby. I’d support publicly-owned grocery stores or incentives for grocery access in underserved neighborhoods and continued investment in programs like Fruit and Vegetable Incentives (Basic Food-plus programs) that stretch benefit dollars on fresh food.

What policies or investments would you support to strengthen Washington’s food system, increase access to locally produced food, support Washington farmers and producers, and reduce food waste? I would support funding for farmland preservation programs and the Washington State Conservation Commission’s work to keep agricultural land in production rather than losing it to development. I’d also back land-access programs that help young and beginning farmers, including farmers of color and Tribal producers, get onto land in the first place. I’d also support expanding programs that help small and mid-size farms sell directly to institutions like schools, hospitals, or state agencies, since those contracts may be more stable than commodity markets and keep more dollars in-state. I would especially fight for strong worker protections for people in the agricultural industry, including better enforcement of farmworker overtime and heat-safety protections, and the right for farmworkers to collectively bargain.  We also need to increase access to locally produced food. I would support fully funding and expanding Farm to School and Farm to Food Bank programs to get fresh, local food into schools and emergency food programs while creating a reliable buyer for Washington producers. I’d prioritize growing the state’s Farm to Food Pantry funding specifically, since it’s one of the more direct ways to connect surplus local production to families who need it.  I’d also support state investment in regional food hubs and distribution infrastructure, especially in underserved and rural areas, to help small farms get their food to institutional buyers or food banks.  To address the issue of food waste, I would support strengthening implementation of Washington’s food waste reduction law. I’m proud of the state’s work to commit to a 50% food waste reduction goal by 2030, but the policy needs real funding and enforcement. On top of that, organizations like Food Lifeline already do the hard and important work of rescuing surplus food, and Washington can help support that work with state funding for refrigerated transport, storage, and rescue infrastructure so more usable food actually makes it to people instead of landfills. Ultimately, a stronger local food system and a stronger safety net aren’t separate projects. Every dollar that helps a Washington farm sell to a food bank instead of watching food rot in a field both supports our agricultural economy and puts good food on someone’s table. That’s the kind of investment that lawmakers should build broad support for in Olympia.