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Local Food: Cultivating Skills for Sustainable Food

This is a list of Evergreen Thumb episodes related to Local Food. WSU Extension Master Gardener volunteers combat food insecurity by empowering underserved communities with the skills and knowledge to grow their own food. 

Between 2020 and 2024, food insecurity was a significant challenge in Washington, affecting an estimated 27% to 49% of households, or up to 1.5 million residents. Recent data from 2024 indicates that food insecurity continues to impact a substantial portion of the population, worsened by rising food costs and the expiration of pandemic-era assistance programs. These challenges highlight the ongoing need for targeted interventions and support to address food insecurity across the state.

Food waste is another critical issue with extensive consequences for the environment, economy, and local communities. In the U.S., an estimated 30-40% of the food supply is wasted each year. This not only squanders valuable resources—land, water, and energy—used to produce, process, and transport food, but when food waste ends up in landfills, it decomposes and releases methane, a greenhouse gas that is 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide.