Today we’d like to introduce you to Eric Holdener, Anna Rose Hopkins, Henry Fischer and Michel Algazi.
So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Farm2People was formed in April 2020, in response to the Covid-19 disruption of our food supply chain. Like so many of us when the pandemic hit, we were glued to the news. We were overwhelmed by the images of potatoes rotting in the field and milk being spilled rather than sold because farms couldn’t get their goods moving. It was like a game of dominoes – the schools and restaurants and large venues closed, then the trucks stopped driving from farm to buyer, then the farms were left with all of this surplus and no way to get it out! At the very same time, we were witnessing the ballooning numbers of individuals and families lining up at the food banks. We were motivated to do something about it, so a bunch of us just started working together. We are all volunteers – food professionals, strategists, students and innovators with a grassroots approach. We partner with existing agencies who aggregate and distribute fresh food to food pantries and meal programs to feed food-insecure communities around LA. What makes us different is that we source the food we donate straight from the farm. We actually raise money to pay the farmers for their produce. So in this way, it’s our mission to fight hunger AND support small, responsible and organic local farming!
Has it been a smooth road?
There’s nothing “smooth” about operating during a pandemic! We have entered the world in a particularly dynamic time, so we have to constantly adapt. For instance, at the start of the pandemic, farms had tremendous surplus with limited time windows to move perishable fresh produce. So our work was mainly to raise money fast enough and organize pickups. Now, months into the pandemic, so many small- and mid-sized farms (the farms your most likely to see at your farmer’s market – the same farms who probably did not qualify for a government bailout) have been forced to shutter or adapt. This is to say that there is not as much surplus but farms need buyers more than ever. And, as I’m sure you can all see, hunger is steadily on the rise still! So our effort is even more important now!
Please tell us about Farm2People.
We are different from most agencies out there because we are focused on supporting local farming while feeding our community. We are playing a part in making our region more food sovereign in this way. We have less impact in terms of pounds of food shared with the community, but this is because half our effort is shared with the farm side. We operate as buyers in service of the farmer rather than as gleaners. We are additive to the robust glean models out there!
We have four points of focus:
Support Farmers
Secure harvests and jobs for the farmers who feed us.
Empower Communities
Transport the best of the best to underserved communities –– real nutrition. Organically grown, local produce.
Grow the Network
Connect farmers to a diverse, resilient network of local food providers through an open-source, community-driven platform
Share the Bounty
Build a model that can be repeated for other dense urban areas.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
LA County has a big food-security problem with many underserved communities. The irony is that this insecurity exists in the same region that produced enough fruits and veggies to feed the nation. The disconnect is real. Our effort is super complimentary to the glean models used by Food Forward or Chefs to End Hunger for instance. We’ve all got to work together.
Contact Info:
- Website: Farm2People.Org
- Phone: 562 502 7185
- Email: hello@farm2people.org
- Instagram: @farm2peoplela
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/farm2people
- Twitter: @farm2people
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/farm-to-people/
Image Credit:
Catalina Muñoz @cataintheworld (images include moments in the field with Weiser Family Farms, FoodCycleLA, G Farms Organic)
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