Democratic VP Pick Tim Walz Has Long Centered Food Policy

On August 6, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris chose Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her running mate. Now in his second term, Walz has made food a central part of his gubernatorial platform, including the passage of a landmark 2023 bill that made free lunch at school available to all Minnesota students. He’s also just generally a hype man for Minnesota foodways — a big Jucy Lucy fan, he’s the kind of guy who raves about hotdish in an MSNBC interview.

While it’s unclear exactly how Walz could impact national food policy if elected to the vice presidency, his work in Minnesota around school lunches and food sustainability — not to mention his enthusiasm for Midwestern eats — makes him a distinctly interesting pick for those of us who pay (arguably too much) attention to food. Here’s a rundown of everything you need to know about Walz’s approach to food and food policy.

He established universal free school breakfast and lunch for Minnesota kids

In 2023, Walz signed a landmark bill into law, making Minnesota one of only eight states in the county with a universal free lunch program, which entitles all Minnesota students to hot meals at school. Before that law, Minnesota offered free meals to low-income students via the federal National School Lunch Program, which requires students to meet certain household income requirements. In 2020, the USDA waived those income requirements thanks to emergency federal pandemic aid, making free meals available to all students, but those benefits expired in 2022.

Minnesota’s version of the program permanently eliminated those economic criteria, providing all students access to free lunch regardless of their parents’ ability to pay. According to CBS News, parents in Minnesota were paying hundreds of dollars every month to keep their kids fed at school, a burden that sometimes extended to the children themselves. “My son used to always tell me that he didn’t eat because he didn’t want to make me have [to] pay for it. He didn’t eat at school,” one parent told CBS after the bill was passed.

According to Minnesota Public Media, the state’s free meals program is expected to cost more than $400 million over two years. Its critics view the program as a waste of money, in part because it provides free lunch and breakfast to wealthy students who don’t need the assistance. Regardless of the costs, though, the program is already paying off in schools where students have increased access to fresh, healthy foods. Universal free lunch has been shown to decrease food insecurity among children. The quality of meals has also improved dramatically at many schools with these programs — instead of pre-packaged cafeteria meals, kitchen workers can now prepare lunches from scratch, with locally grown produce.

This wasn’t Walz’s first foray into school lunch reform, either. In 2022, he signed a bill passed by the Minnesota legislature intended to eliminate “lunch shaming,” or offering children who can’t pay an alternate meal like a cold sandwich, if they owed “lunch debt” to the school. Now, schools are required to offer the same free lunch to all students, regardless of their ability to pay.

Leila Navidi/Star Tribune via Getty Images

He understands the connection between food and climate change

Not only has Walz worked to make food more available, he’s applied for money to make the production of that food more environmentally sustainable. In late July, he welcomed a $200 million Climate Pollution Reduction Grant from the EPA to support the Minnesota Climate-Smart Food Systems project, led by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Among other things, the grant will be used to restore Minnesota peatlands, replace gas-powered farm equipment with electric machines, and scale up programs to keep food out of landfills. All in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from Minnesota’s food systems.

Walz said at the time, “Minnesota has consistently been a leader in climate solutions. From clean energy to sustainable agriculture, our climate goals are ensuring a healthier, safer state. Today, we’re celebrating another significant milestone in this journey. With the EPA’s help, we are creating a food system that nourishes Minnesotans while reducing waste and climate pollution.”

Crucially, the grant will also focus on food sovereignty in Indigenous and low-income communities. Kelly Applegate, Commissioner of Natural Resources for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, said “This grant works towards and compliments the efforts being put forth by Governor Walz’s Advisory Council on Climate Change. Together with the State of Minnesota, we can work towards climate solutions that benefit us all, and preserve the environment and natural resources for generations to come.”

He just seems like a human who likes food

Tim Walz’s recipe for hotdish includes green beans, bacon, ground turkey, mushrooms, and, of course, Tater Tots. This won him the Minnesota Congressional Delegation Hotdish Off two years in a row. Later, however, he was embroiled in scandal — for including peas in his hotdish. If this is the most controversial thing about him, fantastic.

Walz generally seems proud of his Midwestern food traditions, a deeply relatable trait when Republicans seem to insist that experiencing joy should be off putting. Walz has talked about his love for Jucy Lucy burgers, corn dogs, and cinnamon rolls with chili. And unlike J.D. Vance, whose comments about Diet Mountain Dew made it sound like he’d never had one in his life, Walz appears to have a noted history of enjoying the soda. He eschews coffee and alcohol, but says Diet Mountain Dew is his drink of choice, and has been known to sign bottles of it for fans.

This gives the general impression that Walz is a person, with likes and dislikes and a personality. Relatability shouldn’t be the primary factor by which anyone votes, but enthusiasm for the small joys in life signifies that this is a person who lives in the world, who is engaged with his community, who is, to borrow a popular current framing, normal. And it’s clear his personal tastes expand to his policy priorities. If you like to eat, why shouldn’t it follow that you believe everyone else should be able to?