King County Farmers Share

Building relationships for a healthy, sustainable local food system.

A poster for the King County Farmers Share program of Harvest Against Hunger. Tagline, provided in multiple translations: Building relationships for a healthy, sustainable food system. Features imagery of a tractor, a plate and utensils, and the shape of King County, Washington

Harvest Against Hunger is expanding upon our Farm to Food Pantry program within our very own King County, Washington, in which nearly 1 out of every 10 people experiences food insecurity whilst the median household income hovers around $116,255 annually (a dramatic increase that adversely impacts those living at lower income levels)1. Through the King County Farmers Share (KCFS), we collaborate with food assistance providers, small farms, and aggregators within the county. Initiated by a Regional Food System grant from the King Conservation District, the program provides food banks, meals programs, senior centers, and other community organizations distributing free food with funding and technical assistance to establish purchasing contracts with King County farmers. Establishing these connections will both 1) increase the amount, variety, quality, and consistency of local foods available to King County residents experiencing food and nutritional insecurity and 2) support local farms with a consistent, profitable market and business development opportunity rooted in community. 

HAH coordinates closely with our program partners to develop direct purchasing agreements between farmers and organizations as well as piloting new ideas, creating flexible arrangements that support the varied needs of our partners. Like F2FP, agencies and farms can arrange contracts upfront (pre-harvest) and also take advantage of extra produce the becomes available during the growing season — ensuring fresh, nutrient-dense food goes to people rather than to waste. Since it is not always financially feasible for small-scale farmers to make donations, purchasing allows food assistance providers to foster ongoing, mutually beneficial relationships more tailored to King County’s diverse culinary diaspora. Additionally, HAH provides regular networking and resource-sharing opportunities among the agency partners, as well as outreach support.

We hope that KCFS will continue into 2024 to meet dramatically higher levels of need at hunger relief programs. Farmers interested in connecting with local food access organizations with aligned food needs and delivery windows can fill out our match-up survey: bit.ly/KCFSfarms

 

New! Click here to read stories of the impact King County Farmers Share has on our partner farms, hunger relief organizations and the people they serve. ​
A row of black crates filled with different varieties of leafy green vegetables
“We have long standing existing relationships [with farmers] and they’ll grow specifically for our clients in mind. I’ll be like, ‘Collards don’t go. Please don’t grow any collards for us, but we would love X, Y and Z. We have a really big Hispanic population in this one market. We would love tomatillos and jalapenos. Or we have a lot of Asian clients here.’ I’ve found a lot of awesome BIPOC farms that are growing things I’ve never heard of that we’re able to get to [our clients].”
Hopelink KCFS agency partner
A person's gloved hands putting a wicker basket full of garlic bulbs onto a clothed table. Other baskets on the table are filled with apples, nectarines, plums, eggplants, and corn.
“[KCFS] was some historically disadvantaged farmers’ first foray into farming as a business, in this country. This funding provided that first opportunity to sell into a market…Things like reading an invoice, the basics of running a business, they learned through this program. I believe that this program is essential to the success that we’ve had in supporting these farmers.”
King County DNRP KCFS program partner

History and Growth

South Seattle College staff woman wearing gloves and a surgical mask ties up green grocery bags of vegetables in a car trunk
With their campus closed due to COVID-19, we connected KCFS partner the South Seattle College Food Pantry to Tilth Alliance's Good Food Bags program, arranging locally sourced home delivery produce bags for food-insecure students!

In 2019, the inaugural year of KCFS linked diverse small-scale growers to the following hunger relief agencies and/or their member food banks:

  • Seattle Food Committee, which represents almost 30 hunger relief programs and food banks around Seattle
  • Hopelink, a social services nonprofit serving north and east King County, which manages 5 food banks
  • South King County Food Coalition, which represents 12 member food banks
  • Mary’s Place, which provides meals in 9 emergency family shelters and a Day Center throughout King County

In response to the impacts of COVID-19, in August 2020, HAH subcontracted with a portion of King County’s CARES Act funding to expand the local emergency food system’s purchasing from King County farms through fresh sheets ordering and forward contracting through the end of 2020. These funds also supported payments toward King County eggs, dairy, and meat; and we also brought senior centers and community nonprofits newly distributing food into the program, broadening KCFS’s reach–see the web of connections below!

In addition, King Conservation District awarded KCFS additional funding to expand and extend the program through the end of 2021, and KCFS continued in 2022 with ARP Act funding through Public Health Seattle/King County.

Now wrapping up its 5th year, KCFS supported 29 hunger relief agencies in partnering with over 40 small farms in 2023 with funding from King Conservation District. 

Interested in participating? 

If you’re a small-scale King County farm seeking to build a new wholesale relationship that makes your product freshly available to low-income community members, we’d love to connect you with a local food access agency whose needs align with your produce availability and delivery schedule!

2022 KCFS Partnerships

Annual Reports

The KCFS annual reports provide data on:

  • Pounds of produce procured
  • Types of produce procured
  • Donations and gleans of produce from partner farms to agencies
  • Testimonials from partner agencies & the people they serve
  • Impact stories from farms

Click to view and download:

2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 report in progress

In the foreground, a white delivery van for the Des Moines Area Food Bank. In the background, a man and woman picking up crates of leafy green vegetables.

Thanks to the work of a University of Washington student volunteer, we offer this interactive data visualization of KCFS’s cumulative impact and expansion since the program’s beginning. If you are a current Farm to Community agency and want to replicate this tool with your farm partnership data, please contact us and we can set you up with the data files in the program R and instructions.

  1. https://datausa.io/profile/geo/king-county-wa