Healthy Food

Every family deserves access to fresh, wholesome, and nutritious food without breaking the bank. Ensuring food security starts with lowering grocery bills, eliminating deceptive pricing practices, and strengthening local agriculture so that nutritious whole foods are within reach for everyone.

How I will fight to make food affordable for Mainers:

Ending Predatory Grocery Markups & Surveillance Pricing

  • Ban "Surveillance Pricing": I will push to stop predatory algorithmic pricing that uses personal consumer data, shopping history, and location tracking to secretly inflate prices on essential whole foods and staples at checkout (Learn more here).

  • Defend Tax Exemptions on Whole Foods: I will always fight to protect and strengthen sales tax exemptions for unprocessed whole foods, fresh produce, and staple pantry goods in the state biennial budget.

Lowering Costs Through Local Food Systems

  • Fund Regional Cold Storage & Distribution: I will push to build regional processing and cold-storage hubs, reducing middleman markups and transit costs in Maine.

  • Lower Energy Overhead for Grocers & Food Producers: I will support targeted state utility relief and efficiency grants for local independent markets, community co-ops, and refrigerated farm storage to prevent rising utility rates from driving up retail shelf prices.

  • Expand the Maine Food Access Program: I will fight to allocate state matching funds to help mobile markets and farm stands deliver fresh produce directly into underserved neighborhoods and food deserts..

Strengthening Community Nutrition & Food Security

  • Expand Farm-to-School Funding: I will support appropriations for Maine's Local Foods Fund to help school districts source whole produce and protein directly from Maine farms for universal school meal programs.

  • Codify SNAP / Maine Harvest Bucks Matching: I will push to pass legislation establishing dedicated state funding for nutrition incentive programs, doubling the purchasing power of low-income families buying whole foods at local farmers' markets. While these programs exist, they are not permanently funded in Maine.

  • Support Local Pantry Distribution Grants: I will support local food assistance funding for municipal food pantries and community networks to guarantee direct access to fresh, healthy perishables for families facing immediate hardship.