Last week, CAFF hosted U.S. Senator Adam Schiff at Carranza Family Farm in Camarillo, CA. We walked the strawberry fields and talked about keeping small and midsize farms alive and funded alongside our Ventura County area partners in the Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) program, known in California as Farms Together. This successful statewide federal program connects farms with local food hubs and food banks by sourcing from small and midsize farms throughout the state of California and providing it to food-insecure families.
Carranza Family Farms, who hosted the farm tour, leases land on the historic McGrath Family Farm, and farmers from both families led us around the land. The McGrath family has been farming on the Oxnard Plain since 1871. Carranza Farm sources food for LFPA, and is aggregated by local food hub partners Saticoy Food Hub and Farm Cart Organics. One of the many food banks that sources fresh produce is Food Share, and people from each of these organizations were able to share with the Senator Farm Together’s impact in Ventura County, and the importance of this program on their operations and the communities they serve.
Farms Together’s farm and food hub investments have delivered a triple benefit by providing economic stability for small farmers, nutritious food for families, and millions in local procurement. The federal LFPA program is funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and is administered statewide by CAFF, Fresh Approach, and the California Association of Food Banks (CAFB). The program was terminated in 2025, and projects are now running out of their funding. Not only does the cancellation represent a loss of $100 million into rural California economies, but ends a lifeline for hundreds of farmers and deepens the strain on food banks already facing SNAP reductions.
So far, the Farms Together program has:
- Supported 833 small farmers in California
- Purchased $60 million in local food
- Fed Californians in 53/58 counties
- Provided a fair and stable market channel for farmers
- Distributed nutrient-dense produce to 55 Food Banks & Community Organizations
CAFF is advocating for two simultaneous efforts, one with our coalition partners at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition in DC for the mandatory funding inclusion in the Farm Bill, and for one-time bridge funding in the California state budget.
Senator Schiff sits on the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, the first California Senator to do so in over 30 years. This committee holds a lot of power over American agriculture, especially with the trillion dollar Farm Bill legislation package taken up by Congress every five years. As the Senate is set to soon take up the recently passed House version of the Farm Bill, we discussed with the Senator the importance of his leadership in advocating for mandatory and appropriated funding for LFPA — now called the Local Farmers Feeding Our Communities Program in the current bill. California’s farmers and the families they feed deserve a permanent foundation.
With the uncertainty of a Senate Farm Bill, we need to Save Farms Together in California. CAFF and our partners are urging state legislators to support Asm Pellerin and Senator Hurtado’s advocacy by investing $45 million in state resources to fund LFPA through the state budget to keep this vital program going. California farmers have fed Americans for generations, and with the right policies they will keep doing so.
