FamilyFarmed.org works directly with family farmers as well as with local and national organizations that serve farmers and are working to build local food systems. We also work through our website, annual FamilyFarmed EXPO, and Chicagoland CSA Guide to educate the public about eating locally grown food, supporting farm families, and becoming members of local CSA programs. Our Programs Include:
Market Development
Creating new markets for family farmers is key to building local food systems as more than 99% of agricultural products consumed in America are purchased through wholesale channels. FamilyFarmed.org works to build the overall supply chain of local food by providing technical assistance to farmers, connecting wholesale buyers with producers, and helping to create infrastructure that supports the growth of these systems. FamilyFarmed.org works with many leading buyers of local food including Whole Foods Market, Chipotle, Sysco, US Foods, Compass Group, Goodness Greeness, Chartwells-Thompson Hospitality (Chicago Public Schools), Lettuce Entertain You, and others to connect them with local food sources. FamilyFarmed.org also consults to create packinghouses, or food hubs, which aggregate, cool, pack, and market locally grown produce. In 2011 we helped to launch three operating food hubs, one in Virginia and two in Illinois.
FamilyFarmed.org also provides technical assistance and training for farmers. We published Wholesale Success: A Farmer’s Guide to Selling, Postharvest Handling and Packing Produce. The 255-page manual includes comprehensive sections on issues such as Building Relationships with Buyers, On-Farm Food Safety, and Calculating Return on Investment. This is the leading manual of its type and includes over 100 crop profiles that give specific harvesting, cooling, storage, and packing information on most of the fruits and vegetables grown in the United States. It is the basis for our Wholesale Success farmer workshops that have trained more than 2000 farmers in recent years. In 2011 a partnership with USDA Risk Management Agency trained over 600 farmers in, CA, FL, VA, IN, and NY. Over 500 farmers are scheduled to be trained in similar workshops in 2012.We also facilitate “Meet the Buyer” events in select markets to link local producers face to face with wholesale buyers.
Food Safety
On-Farm Food Safety is key for all farmers of all sizes. As such, FamilyFarmed.org has launched a nationally significant on-farm food safety program whereby small to mid-scale fruit and vegetable farmers have access to a free, easy-to-use online tool that helps them create a personalized food safety plan and to adopt best practices in food safety. Food safety plans are the basis for food safety certification, which is increasingly required by wholesale buyers. This tool is available at www.onfarmfoodsafety.org.
Farm to School
FamilyFarmed.org has partnered with Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to help develop their local food procurement program. In the past two years, their foodservice provider Chartwells-Thompson Hospitality purchased over $4 million in food from local farmers in the FamilyFarmed.org network. This innovative program includes a preference for farms using Integrated Pest Management techniques and produce grown without the use of organophosphate pesticides. CPS recently purchased $1.1 million in antibiotic free chicken sourced from an Indiana farm, the largest purchase of its type in the US. FamilyFarmed.org looks forward to strengthening and expanding this win-win program nationally to include additional schools and colleges.
Good Food Festival and Conference
For the past six years, FamilyFarmed.org has produced the FamilyFarmed EXPO in Chicago. It’s a trade show, financing and food policy conference, and celebration of local and responsibly produced food. The purpose of the event is to link local farmers and family-owned producers of food and farm products with the public, trade buyers and leaders in the field to foster relationships that facilitate the growth of local food systems. This year, FamilyFarmed.org has partnered with the Santa Monica Farmers Market to produce the Good Food Festival and Conference. FamilyFarmed.org has now adopted this brand for its multi-day festival and conference.
Local Food Systems Leadership
FamilyFarmed.org has a history of providing leadership in the local food systems arena through participation in councils, speaking engagements, conferences, meetings, and through consulting. FamilyFarmed.org helped pass the Illinois Local Food, Farms and Jobs Act and is represented on the Illinois Food Farms and Jobs Council and on the Chicago Food Policy Advisory Council. We also conduct research and consult on Local Food Hub development, an important component of developing regional food systems. FamilyFarmed.org has performed feasibility studies in Illinois, Virginia, and Wisconsin exploring the need for produce aggregation and distribution and helped to launch a number of food hubs as a result.
Food Access
FamilyFarmed.org works to enhance fresh local food availability and access throughout Chicago, especially in disinvested communities. Working with community partners and the City of Chicago, FamilyFarmed.org helped develop a pilot program whereby federal food benefit program benefits can be accepted at farmers markets. Additionally, we partnered with the Wholesome Wave Foundation on a program that doubles the value of such benefit programs at three farmers markets in Chicago serving low-income families.
