WSDA reorganizes food‑systems work; state studies rising household food insecurity

Katie Raines, WSDA director of food systems initiatives, told the Senate committee that the department has reorganized to create a Farm and Food Systems Development Division to better coordinate food‑systems investments and hunger‑relief partnerships.

Raines said the department uses multiple data sources to monitor household food security, including the state’s WA Food Study (run by the University of Washington and partners since 2020). She warned that the USDA's household food security supplement will be discontinued and that will create blind spots for future national comparisons. "One of the most striking results ... is that a third of the households who are earning 75,000 to a 150,000 reported food insecurity," Raines said.

Raines outlined commonly used assistance programs (SNAP, food banks/pantries, school nutrition) and described WSDA's role in coordinating state investments and grants for local food infrastructure. She flagged access barriers: many state funded grant programs are structured as reimbursable awards that small producers and community organizations cannot front, limiting participation by small, women‑ or minority‑owned operations.

On eligibility, Raines said EFAP (a state‑funded program) has no statutory income criteria, while the state sets TFAP thresholds; the department noted TFAP was set at 400% of the federal poverty level by the Food Assistance Advisory Committee and that the department will engage stakeholders this year on policy impacts.

What happens next: WSDA will run another WA Food Study round starting late January or early February to track policy changes and benefit alterations and will continue community engagement on a statewide food security strategy.

Sources and caveats: statements and survey results were drawn from the WA Food Study and internal WSDA data; Raines noted the WA Food Study is not a representative census sample and complements federal data rather than replacing it.