To mitigate the pandemic’s impacts across the food system, global and country-specific interventions are to be taken simultaneously at various scales: measures meant to preserve and re-adjust the global food supply chains need to be complemented with context-specific solutions harnessing locally-available resources and goods. Family farmers are particularly well positioned to provide contextualized and, comprehensive solutions. They, their organizations and cooperatives are rooted in their territories and in their communities, they are closely embedded in local realities and for the production activities, they rely on their own production (or reproduction) of productive resources or on the locally available inputs. Working with them, governments can tackle multiple challenges and reach objectives encompassing economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. Beyond the immediate interventions addressing the current emergency situations, countries may take this opportunity to pursuit permanent solutions and promote transformation towards more sustainable food systems.