Madam Chair and members of the subcommittee, Voices for Virginia's Children supports HB 610 to establish the Commonwealth Food Security and Coordination Act. This past year, illuminated the hidden hunger within our communities and need for state-level systems to coordinate food access across departments. For these reasons we urge you to support this bill.

Food choice is at the very root of democracy. As a result, it is incumbent upon each and everyone of us to support the sovereignty of making choices as a consumer that will benefit our health. Nationally, we are finally having this discussion-albeit, one riddled with partisanship and controversy. Let us make no mistake about it. There is no junk food. There is junk. And there is food. As a consumer who understands the myopic consequences of choosing the junk and having to navigate through a maze of regulations to choose the REAL, I urge you to allow the citizens of the Commonwealth to choose for themselves what constitutes a life in which they may thrive. Let us become a shining example of practices that honor the land and her people.