HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!
A MESSAGE FROM MA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES TO MFA MEMBERS
Understanding how much local food is purchased in Massachusetts is important to understand the state food system’s resiliency. To establish a baseline, Massachusetts will share a questionnaire in 2026 based on purchases from 2025 with distributors/grocer members as well as restaurants, health care and educational institution contacts. The questionnaire/surveys will be sent to MFA member buyers, and once completed, sent directly to a third-party researcher and aggregated with other similar respondents. Massachusetts, as part of the New England State Food System Planners Partnership, has a goal of growing, raising, catching and producing 30% of New England’s food from within New England by 2030. Project partners include Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resource and the Massachusetts Food System Collaborative. For more information, please visit this website.
Consumers are interested in local sourcing for high quality products and sustainability. For retailers, local suppliers can attract more customers, increase sales, and position the retailer as a community-based business. Massachusetts collected data in 2022, but because of the low response rate, the data does not adequately reflect how much local food is being purchased and sold in Massachusetts. MDAR looks forward to working with MFA to provide a background on this project, information about the survey, the timeline, and a request to identify buyers within supermarkets and distributors and who should receive the questionnaire regarding the value of their local purchases.
MA DTA SUN BUCKS KICKS OFF
The Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) is writing to inform you that all SUN Bucks (formerly Summer EBT) recipients will receive a new SUN Bucks EBT card this year (pictured below). Starting in the summer of 2025, this new SUN Bucks EBT card will be accepted in addition to the other existing EBT cards in circulation. DTA has created a poster with this information. They encourage you to print and hang the attached poster in your employee breakroom for staff reference. You can learn more about the program by visiting mass.gov/SUNBucks.
Email: DTA.SUNBucks@mass.gov. SUN Bucks Team www.mass.gov/sunbucks Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance www.mass.gov/sunbucks.
HEARING ON ALCOHOL SALES RELATED BILLS SCHEDULED
On Monday, July 7 the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure will hold a hearing on a number of bills related alcohol sales, including, allowance of coupon sales (S219), mandatory alcohol sales training (H344), allowance of Thanksgiving day sales (H428), and S212 – An Act relative to nature of alcohol licenses and permits. This proposal would count an entire store’s sales rather than just alcohol beverage sales for the purposes of determining a fine in lieu of license suspension. Also H439, which would allow off-premise licensees to join together in up to nine licenses total for attaining a combined quantity discount offered by a wholesaler licensed under section 18.
