Young Lawmakers Cross the Aisle to Combat Food Insecurity

By Eva Herrick

For some Americans, the question of where their next meal will come from is easily answered by a look in the pantry, a shopping list, or a food delivery app. Yet, for many around the country, this question is more difficult. In 2024, one in seven American households experienced food insecurity. As inflation rises, food prices remain high, and public assistance programs like SNAP are cut, this number continues to increase. 

While recent SNAP freezes have been a harsh wake-up call for many in the country to recognize the severity of food insecurity, legislators from both parties have been diligently seeking solutions in their home states—efforts that extend across the Future Caucus network. 

Such a fundamental issue as hunger offers meaningful opportunities for bipartisan collaboration in statehouses, Vermont Rep. Esme Cole, a Democrat, told Future Caucus. “What we all want—and what we need—is to have people fed.”

Food insecurity knows no geographic boundaries. The crisis is impacting Americans from every background, in every state. For Rep. Angel Roeser, a Republican representing Manhattan, Kansas, this issue hits particularly close to home. Hailing from Kansas, which is known as the breadbasket of the world, Roeser draws on personal experience with food insecurity and welfare to guide her policy. 

“Being the breadbasket of the world is kind of funny, right?” Roeser said in an interview. “We provide so much food for the rest of the country, but we have so much food insecurity.”

To address the lack of access to affordable healthy food, Roeser supported a variety of policies, but the community initiative that Roeser is most proud of is the Flint Hills Breadbasket, which is a community food network that provides reliable access to healthy food for the people of Manhattan, Kansas. 

The Breadbasket does more than distribute food to people who need it. It forges valuable connections between residents and community partners, and, perhaps most importantly, restores dignity to families. Located in a renovated warehouse, the Breadbasket looks like a typical grocery store, with carts, name brands, and a large selection of produce. 

“When you’re coming there with the shame and guilt that no one should ever have to carry around because of food scarcity, it’s such a relief for people to feel like this community cares about them,” Roeser shared.

Growing up using SNAP, Medicaid, WIC, and Free and Reduced Lunch Programs, as well as other community programs, Roeser knows all too well how much stigma surrounds non-market food systems. This is why she remains so open about sharing her personal experiences. 

Roeser’s background is also central to her policy platform. She has openly opposed bills that would restrict  access to food through SNAP waivers or make changes to auto-eligibility for SNAP benefits. By ensuring both her voice and her policies restore dignity to those dealing with food insecurity, Roeser hopes to reduce stigma and create even more effective change for her community.

Across the country, Rep. Esme Cole is advancing a similar mission by championing innovative policies to increase food resiliency in Vermont. In her first term, Cole was assigned to a committee with a unique combination of policy areas: Agriculture, Food Resiliency, and Forestry. Drawing on the committee’s unexpected focus areas, Cole helped develop a cutting-edge program that supports Vermont’s agriculture and increases food security. 

The result was Vermonters Feeding Vermonters, an institutional purchasing relationship between Vermont Foodbank and local farms. The initiative creates a mutually beneficial relationship by ensuring access to fresh, healthy food for consumers and a stable income for farmers, who can make revenue through the program prior to the growing season. Thus far, the program has helped circulate $90 million of revenue for the state’s agricultural economy and has a network of over 300 farms throughout the state.

A creative policy like this one would not have been possible without building strong relationships. In order to secure passage, Cole had conversations with stakeholders and members across the aisle. She worked to understand what everyone cared about and for what reason, so that she could ensure that the final bill had a win for everyone involved. One relationship that Cole leaned on was with the Vermont Foodbank, who she initially partnered with during her first term, where she contributed to the passage of universal school meals legislation. 

For minority communities and children, the crisis of food insecurity is the most severe. In 2026, one in five children in America live with hunger, which translates to over 14 million children living in food insecure households. For many of these kids, school is the only place they can get a full meal. Other kids have reported taking school meals home to feed their families. Decisions like these are all too common and not only place unfair burdens on children, but also drastically impact students’ academic performance. 

For Rep. Dr. Imani Barnes, a Democrat representing District 86 in Georgia, the impact of food insecurity on students is top of mind. Barnes, an academic and self-described “true nerd,” uses her research on how childhood obesity influences academic achievement to highlight how the American education system has sold students short.

“We feed prisoners because they have to be in prison all day, but we have to pick and choose which children we feed,” Barnes said in an interview. “If we’re legally requiring these kids to be at school all day, we should be feeding them.”

By merging her academic pursuits with her political advocacy, Barnes is drawing her chamber’s attention to the ways children’s hunger has been ignored in the education and food policy space. Barnes also effectively maneuvers across the aisle, answering questions with data and facts, to be a voice for the children in her community.

Not only have these lawmakers benefitted from bipartisan collaboration in their own states, but they have also leaned on the experience and expertise of fellow lawmakers from across the country. Future Caucus, with a network of young legislators facing similar policymaking challenges in a politically polarized environment, has been an incredible resource. 

Peers from across the aisle are both a source of support and inspiration. Barnes recalled that upon hearing about Rep. Tiara Mack’s free meal legislation in Rhode Island, she got to work immediately to develop a similar policy in her home state. 

“When you see people across the aisle excited about the same thing that you are, the energy that comes with that is pretty special,” Cole shared.

Even in the face of immense challenges, Future Caucus lawmakers are an encouraging reminder that persistence and a commitment to bipartisan collaboration can make a difference. And to combat food insecurity, these lawmakers are determined to make an impact together. 

“Sometimes being young, it feels like a drop in the bucket in changing the climate of politics. But when you get us all in the same room, it feels like a waterfall,” Roeser said.