Guide to Contracting with Farms for Hunger Relief Agencies This guide is based on the experiences of Harvest Against Hunger (HAH) and its partner hunger relief agencies through the Farm to Food Pantry Initiative (F2FP; a partnership with Washington State Department of Agriculture) and King…
Concrete Jungle’s COVID-19 Grocery Delivery Program provides fresh produce and cooking staples to approximately 300 food insecure families every week.
Focused on building a resilient local food culture, GULB focuses most of its marketing members in community members and tries to build partnerships with local businesses.
When a donor invests in the Green Urban Lunch Box, they are directly support GULB’s programs: Back-Farms, FruitShare, Small Farm Initiative, and our Free Farm Stands. 100% of monetary donation goes towards eliminating food insecurity and waste, while supporting local, urban farming efforts in Salt Lake County.
The Green Urban Lunch Box relies heavily on volunteers, but had to alter operations due to COVID-19. Instead of recruiting one-time volunteers, GULB recruited recurring volunteers.
With an eye toward the future of potentially not having a staff person to help bring Urban Abundance’s mission to fruition, an important element of 2020 was developing a program that kept volunteers engaged with the organization on a more consistent basis.
Another method for Urban Abundance to adapt to the pandemic was developing an entirely online harvest program.
Urban Abundance’s activities have traditionally been centered around volunteer events. When a global pandemic hit, the organization turned to installing publicly accessible edible landscapes throughout the community in a bid to continue furthering their mission when events couldn’t be held.
Evaluating and conveying the impacts of farm-to-hunger relief programs is important not just for reporting requirements but garnering support to further build the program’s impact.
A major economic advantage for a farm to enter into a purchasing contract with a hunger relief organization (HRO)–food bank or meals program–is that a HRO provides a more flexible market than traditional wholesalers (e.g. hospitals, schools, grocers).