Tumwater’s food system plan aims to address local food insecurity 

The City of Tumwater is continuing to work on its food system plan, which seeks to address food insecurity.

The council reviewed goals and policies of the plan at a meeting on Tuesday, July 8, after a consultant completed an assessment of the city’s existing food system.

Consultant Rebeca Potasnik said she engaged local experts in conducting the assessment. She interviewed 28 people from various sectors that make up the food system and conducted an in-depth survey, which got 24 responses.  

She analyzed key developments, challenges, current collaborations and resources within various sectors. The sectors included processors and producers, retail and distribution, waste reduction and recovery, public health and nutrition, education and workforce, food access and security, and land use. 

There was a concern about the adequacy of the sample size, but Potasnik said she tried reaching a broad swath of people. She added that her list of contacts was reviewed by the city’s planning commission and general government committee so their members could provide input.  

Potasnik further explained that the assessment informed the draft goals and policies of the food plan. 

She proposed three goals:

1. Provide access to fresh, nutritious, culturally appropriate food for all members of the community.
2. Reduce food waste. 
3. Support local food processing and production. 

A number of policies were also presented to help achieve each goal. 

For the first goal, policies include strengthening regional collaboration, increasing opportunities for self-reliance, supporting land use policies that impact food access, and more.  

For the second goal, policies include working with Thurston County for educational efforts, as well as other partners for food recovery and redistribution systems. 

For the third goal, policies include reducing barriers, providing incentives, strengthening the infrastructure, and more. 

Once finalized, the policies aim to guide the development of implementation actions to achieve the goals of the food plan. 

The council seemed to approve of how the plan is shaping up. 

Council member Michael Althauser highlighted the timeliness of this work, given the upcoming changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

SNAP is a federal program that provides food benefits to eligible low-income families. Spending for the program will be reduced due to the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025. 

“A huge swath of Washingtonian families are going to be kicked off of SNAP as a result of that, and it's just going to put more strain on the systems we have that are already underfunded like food banks,” Althauser said. 

“Demand is going to be even higher than it was before, so I'm just glad that we're taking this step now and kind of working on this because it's quite timely.” 

City Planner Dana Bowers said the assessment is currently under review by experts who were interviewed. Bowers said city staff will return to the council in September with an update on the proposed policies once reviewed by the legal department.