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Growing from a decade of success, King County’s updated Local Food Initiative has a broader vision, addressing hunger relief, access to farmland, and climate resiliency
Summary
Nov. 19, 2025: King County is updating its Local Food Initiative 10 years after its initial launch, enhancing the policy roadmap to strengthen the local food economy and make homegrown food accessible to all.
News
King County is updating its Local Food Initiative to address some of the most urgent challenges facing the local food economy, including access to hunger relief, rising farmland cost, a lack of food distribution infrastructure, and increasing threats from climate change.
Since launching in 2015, the initiative has guided King County’s efforts to expand access to farmland for farmers, improve the farm-to-market pipeline to get more locally grown food to consumers, and ease access to healthy, affordable food in low-income communities.
The Local Food Initiative made progress on multiple fronts during its first decade: Creating a grant program that provides funding to hunger relief organizations to purchase food from local farmers, making farmland more accessible to Black, immigrant, and refugee farmers, establishing a business incubator to support small food and farm producers that use locally grown ingredients, and strengthening local hunger relief efforts with grant funding to enhance food distribution infrastructure.
“After a decade of progress, we’re enhancing the Local Food Initiative to meet the current needs of both farmers and the communities they support, so more families have access to nutritious, homegrown food,” said King County Executive Shannon Braddock. “The strong community partnerships we’ve built over the last several years will help us create a more equitable and climate-resilient food system.”
The updated initiative identifies 10 immediate actions to implement:
- Expanding local food markets by investing in people and programs that coordinate supply chains and connect farmers, food businesses, and buyers.
- Developing long-term, sustainable funding for farm-to-community and food access programs, helping them purchase food from local producers, including forward contracting agreements.
- Making farmland more affordable and available to farmers by lowering land costs, encouraging active farming on preserved land, offering incentives for selling to new farmers, and using programs that buy, protect, and resell farmland for agricultural use.
- Helping more farmers – specifically small and historically underserved farmers – adopt climate-friendly and regenerative farming practices by providing funding, training, hands-on demonstration, and opportunities to learn from other farmers.
The update is being led by the King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks and the King Conservation District, guided by three priorities:
- Centering the voices of communities and groups that have historically been left out of food system planning, ensuring that the plan reflects a truly regional vision.
- Embedding climate change and climate resilience at the heart of the plan, recognizing that a healthy food system and a healthy environment are inseparable.
- Improving alignment with other regional strategies, including King County’s Strategic Climate Action Plan and the City of Seattle’s Food Action Plan, so that the collective work reinforces and amplifies one another.
“The foundation that our employees and partners established during the first decade of the Local Food Initiative puts us in a position to achieve even more during the next 10 years,” said John Taylor, Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Parks. “The updated plan has an even greater emphasis on racial justice and climate resiliency, both of which are needed to strengthen the local food economy.”
Sustained partner engagement to promote an equitable, climate-resilient food system
To sustain partner engagement, a new King County Food Systems Advisory Council consisting of 20 diverse members from across the food system and the county was convened to guide both the development and implementation of the updated initiative.
The updated plan reflects the diverse voices of King County’s multicultural communities: farmers, food workers, public agency partners, businesses, community organizations, and institutions all contributed their time, expertise, and voices to shape the Local Food Initiative.
It also recommends actions that add climate resiliency to the local food system, including rebuilding farm soil health and improving ecosystem function by planting cover crops and establishing crop rotations that hold carbon and helps the soil retain water while reducing runoff.
Investments and technical assistance in low-carbon and energy-efficient pilot projects across the food supply chain are also recommended – on farms, at processing facilities, and in transporting locally grown food from farms to consumers – to ensure the local food economy can thrive.
“Creating a more climate-resilient food system starts with supporting farmers, and that is what we will achieve with the updated Local Food Initiative,” said Marissa Aho, Director of the King County Executive Climate Office. “This roadmap, developed with community partners, centers equity to increase local food access as a way to improve community resilience.”
More than 1,600 residents completed surveys, and additional input came from listening sessions, focus groups, and interviews. The community emphasized the need to protect farmland, support farmers and food businesses, expand equitable access to healthy food, invest in infrastructure, and ensure that climate and equity guide decision-making.
Multimedia
- PHOTO GALLERY: Images available to download
- VIDEO: Growing the local food economy
- TRACKS: An interactive map of environmental stewardship in King County
Resources
Quotes
After a decade of progress, we’re enhancing the Local Food Initiative to meet the current needs of both farmers and the communities they support, so more families have access to nutritious, homegrown food. The strong community partnerships we’ve built over the last several years will help us create a more equitable and climate-resilient food system.
Creating a more climate-resilient food system starts with supporting farmers, and that is what we will achieve with the updated Local Food Initiative. This roadmap, developed with community partners, centers equity to increase local food access as a way to improve community resilience.
The foundation that our employees and partners established during the first decade of the Local Food Initiative puts us in a position to achieve even more during the next 10 years. The updated plan has an even greater emphasis on racial justice and climate resiliency, both of which are needed to strengthen the local food economy.
Contact
Doug Williams, Department of Natural Resources and Parks, 206-477-4543