Transportation and Marketing 

Farmers Market Promotion Program

Fiscal Year 2021 Description of Funded Projects

Number of Grants Awarded: 88

Amount of Funds Awarded: $37,458,823.30

For more information, please visit the grant program's website: 

https://www.ams.usda.gov/services/grants/fmpp

NOTE: The below project descriptions were provided by the grant recipients.

Alaska

Recipient: Cook Inletkeeper

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $440,645.77

Match Amount: $111,191.80

Total Project Amount: $551,837.57

Growing Sustainable Roots for Alaska’s Farmers Markets, Farm Stands, and CSAs

Since 2006, the number of farmers markets in Alaska has more than tripled: from 13 to 41 in 2017. In 

2021, the Alaska Farmers Market Association (AFMA) counted 56, with more in planning. According to 

the 2017 NASS Agricultural Census, Alaska ranked first in the nation in terms of new farms, with the 

majority of these operations being small (under 10 acres). In addition, Alaska’s direct sales have 

continued to rise over the last decade – farmers markets are integral to this growth. More than ever, 

across the state our market managers and farmers desire connection, networking, collective marketing, 

and training opportunities for long‐term success. Given the wide‐ranging capacities of markets, 

coordinated statewide marketing materials and efforts are also needed. AFMA has created the general 

framework to support statewide farmers market management, training, and promotion, providing direct 

benefits to Alaska’s farmers markets vendors and customers. This project seeks to further support 

markets, including CSAs and farm stands, in new ways, to directly support the Alaska Farmers Market 

Association’s mission to support and promote vibrant and sustainable farmers markets throughout 

Alaska, by: improving local food opportunities through targeted marketing efforts and assets; increasing 

marketing and business capacities of direct marketing organizations producers through outreach, 

training, and technical assistance; improving AFMA’s operational capacity; increasing access and equity 

to local food by improving outreach; and creating a young farmers network to support new farmers.
Arizona

Recipient: Technical Assistance Partnership of Arizona (TAPAZ)

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $673,404.00

Match Amount: $169,666.00

Total Project Amount: $843,070.00

Welcome to Our Place: A BIPOC Farmers/Ranchers Farmers Market Promotion Initiative

Tiger Mountain Foundation (TMF) is a minority led initiative with people of color, women, senior 

citizens, at-risk youth, the LGBTQ+ community, reentry populations and people with disabilities.

Welcome to Our Place is our initiative that promotes BIPOC businesses, helps urban farmers/ranchers 

increase their presence at farmer markets, and reduces food scarcity in South Phoenix. The communities 

we serve are low-income areas with high rates of crime, diabetes, and obesity, and a lack of affordable

fresh produce. Our Welcome to Our Place initiative includes services from PEACE2, a broad-based

alliance of city, organizations and agencies dedicated to addressing health and wellness concerns in 

South Phoenix and Maricopa County. Along with TMF’s three partners, we will reduce food insecurity by 

providing planning assistance to help BIPOC farmers/ranchers farmers and ranchers increase sales at 

farmers markets, develop value-added products, and create plans for Community Supported

Agriculture, and food-to-institution initiatives. This project provides technical assistance and educationa

workshops to help farmers/ranchers develop strategies to increase produce/meat products and improve 

sales at the Spaces of Opportunity (SOO) farmers market and other markets in Maricopa and nearby 

counties. It also creates a plan for providing value-added ranch products to farmers markets. Education

topics include financial literacy, food safety, food preparation and preservation, and 

marketing/promotional strategies. Through the TMF successful, three-pronged strategy and by exploring

potential ways to increase produce/meat sales at farmers markets throughout Maricopa County, we 

will create a more livable community through a robust farming and ranching industry.

Arkansas

Recipient: University of Arkansas System

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $622,797.00

Match Amount: $156,391.00

Total Project Amount: $779,188.00

Expanding Farmers Opportunities in Northwest Arkansas (EFO-NWA)

While Northwest Arkansas has a robust farmers market culture, the financial success of participant 

growers is limited by the variable weather of market days, the limited lifespan of produce, and the 

difficulty of selling seconds. Stabilizing the crop through thermal processing will benefit farmers by 

extending farm income beyond the harvest and utilizing a greater percentage of the crop. 

The Expanding Farmers’ Opportunities program will partner with growers who sell at local farmers 

markets to develop shelf stable products using the facilities at the Arkansas Food Innovation Center. 

After the recipe is developed in conjunction with Brightwater culinary arts students, a team of students 

from the Walton College of Business will assist in the development of a business plan to guide the new 
venture. In the program’s annual cycle, the recipe and business plan will be developed during the off 

season so that it can be enacted during the harvest. The first run of the product will be processed and 

sold by the farmer at the Farmers Market so the finished business plan will include accurate processing 

costs, revenue projections and a marketing strategy. Upon completion of the program, the grower will 

receive a portfolio including a standardized recipe of a product that has proven to be highly acceptable 

to customers, a food safety plan for processing, and a business plan with known expenses that is ready 

to be enacted. Creating a culture of local food processing will augment growers’ income and enrich the

customer experience at the market.

California

Recipient: Ecology Center

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $748,518.95

Match Amount: $75,165.52

Total Project Amount: $823,684.47

Building Stronger and Inclusive CA Farmers' Markets for the Next Generation through Promotion, 

Training, and Communities of Practice

This project will increase economic opportunities for direct-marketing producers and strengthen

California's farmers’ market industry. This project builds on a previous FMPP project and enables 

California Alliance of Farmers Markets, led by the Ecology Center, to prepare farmers’ markets for the 

future. This project addresses concurrent challenges: marketplace competition; reduced customers; 

inconsistent quality/knowledge of market managers; limited capacity among market organizations for 

marketing and outreach; operational changes due to COVID-19; increased frequency and intensity of

heat, drought, smoke, wind, and flood events; and the need for markets to be more inclusive of 

underserved communities. The project will benefit 650 California Farmers' Markets and 2,200 growers 

through digital media promotion and grassroots marketing to expand farmers’ customer bases. It will 

build professionalism and consistency among farmers markets by developing a Farmers’ Market 

Certificate Program, to elevate the standards for market management; adding trainings and peer-t

peer collaborations to enhance leadership and resiliency related to COVID-19, crowd management and

de-escalation, and Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI). This project will design and launch a

farmers’ market grassroots marketing internship program; pairing college interns with markets, 

combining training with hands-on experiences, and cultivating a diverse generation of new market

professionals; Expected outcomes include increased customers, market sales, consumption of local 

agricultural products. This project anticipates training 350 market professionals, cultivating 18 paid 

market interns, and engaging over 2 million Californians through advertising.

Recipient: Farmers Market Coalition

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $686,926.69

Match Amount: $74,925.00

Total Project Amount: $761,851.69
Promoting Farmers Markets Impacts: Building Local and State Level Capacity for Data

Fifty years into the modern local food system, the 8,200 U.S. farmers market sites remain at its 

forefront. During the COVID-19 crisis however, thousands of markets struggled to make the case that

their operations were essential which was exacerbated by the low capacity of state farmers market 

associations to assist. Many markets reported lower attendance, while others saw increases but remain 

unsure if they can retain them. Analyzing what is happening in any season and knowing how to respond 

and use that information remains a challenge for most market operators. Farmers Market Coalition 

(FMC) will build comprehensive, online pages on the FMC website of all available market-level

evaluation resources, tool/software comparisons, offer technical assistance, and public data to assist 

markets and state associations make the case to stakeholders and to increase shoppers and vendors. 

Webinars on choosing evaluation software, analyzing federal and state grants, measuring equity & 

vendor impacts and sharing data will be prioritized. The project will increase capacity for state farmers 

market associations in Alaska, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and Vermont to add data-driven National

Farmers Market Week promotion campaigns to improve the attendance at their markets and to help 

build and test a universal dataset of up-to-date market profiles and locations for state and nationa

directories and consumer apps to use. Farmers and ranchers will have open access to useful data, 

consumers will be able to find the outlets that suit their needs, and the sector will be better able to 

respond to crisis and to opportunity.

Recipient: Petaluma People Services Center/ Petaluma Bounty

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $749,941.93

Match Amount: $259,439.04

Total Project Amount: $1,009,380.97

Farmers Market LIFE: Expanding Farmers’ Markets’ Reach to Non-Traditional Communities Through 

Online Platforms, Access Innovations, and Place-Based Outreach

Direct To Consumer (DTC) sales have been on the decline prior to COVID in our geographical region, at 

the same time DTC has pivoted to meet consumers in a new, unexpected modality, which expanded to 

engage consumers who may not have had access to these sales opportunities before. Many local 

producers have been impacted by a series of disasters in Northern California and rising operations costs. 

Farmers’ Market LIFE seeks to leverage the consumer momentum toward online sales through 

innovative methods while maintaining the values, relationships, and community connections.

This proposed project will bring the community to the Farmers Markets and bring the Farmers Markets 

to the community by increasing the number of in-person customers, expanding online sales, and

creating delivery hubs. The project outcomes: (1) reduce producer-to-consumer barriers to Farmer

Market participation for specific demographic groups, including the elderly, young families, urban and 

rural communities, low income/low access community members, and other people traditionally 

underrepresented at farmers’ markets ; (2) increase producer-to-consumer sales for farmers market

vendors from the above demographics and beyond through targeted marketing and outreach 

innovations( (3) tap into the momentum of e-commerce to promote Farmers Markets as a viable option

for consumers with technologically savvy and the means to pay full price while offsetting costs for FM 

Ambassadors and low-income delivery hubs; (4) reduce on- farm waste and capture supplementa

revenue streams by promoting bulk orders and institutional purchases for farm seconds and during peak 

season; (5) increase the total number of transactions from farmers’ market customers; and (6) increase 

the total amount of sales from farmers’ market vendors.
Recipient: Community Alliance with Family Farmers

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $271,667.00

Match Amount: $67,917.00

Total Project Amount: $339,584.00

Diversifying Small Farm Direct-to-Consumer Sales: Value-Added Products & E-commerce

Research has shown that farmers that add value-added products to their revenue stream increase farm

revenue and build in more diversity and thus security for their business. Small farmers face various 

barriers to producing value-added products and then selling them direct-to-consumer, especially v

online sales. This project will encourage farmers to develop value-added products through resource

guides and farmers sharing best practices on how to sell those products through e-commerce

Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) provides small farmers throughout California with 

various services and policy advocacy for over 40 years. During 2020, CAFF developed a Small Farm Tech 

Hub, within which we provide growers with 1-on-1 technical assistance in selling products through

commerce, building websites, and maximizing social media. This project builds upon that foundation and 

specializes in value-added products. Farmers will be able to access a continuum of services from CAFF

through this project: value-added product development e-course, webinars explaining the Value-Ad

Producer Grant (VAPG) opportunity, cost-share funding to attend value-added product food safet

trainings, receive support submitting a VAPG, access to a 9 part webinar series of growers across the 

country sharing their value-added product e-commerce success stories, and the ability to get free o

on-one technical assistance on value-added and/or technology related questions. We expect to hav

2,065 project beneficiaries, 240 new direct to consumer market opportunities, 1,025 farmers gain 

knowledge on preserving locally grown crops, and at least 80 socially disadvantaged farmers helped in 1

on-1 technical assistance

Recipient: Alameda County Deputy Sheriffs' Activities League

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $749,999.40

Match Amount: $196,156.85

Total Project Amount: $946,156.25

Building Collective Strength: Alameda County Small Farm Collective

In Alameda County, California, 180,930 people (10.9% of the population) are food insecure.

To increase access to and availability of regionally produced fruits and vegetables to Alameda County 

residents who are food insecure, the Alameda County Deputy Sheriffs’ Activities League (DSAL) will 

implement the Building Collective Strength: Alameda County Small Farm Collective project.

DSAL is leveraging its comprehensive infrastructure for fresh fruit and vegetable aggregation, 

processing, and distribution to support a regional Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) collective.

The collective will primarily sell produce to the Food as Medicine program, which will provide nutrient

dense fresh produce to 11,000 low-income residents with metabolic illness and/or food insecurity over

the next three years. Fresh produce will be purchased by health clinics and be delivered directly to 

patients’ homes. The overarching goal of Building Collective Strength is to strengthen the infrastructure 

of the Alameda County regional food economy by providing business planning, marketing support, and 
training for farmers in Alameda County and coordination of purchasing and contracting, and delivery 

support for direct-to-consumer market opportunities through a regional CSA collectiv

Projected outcomes for Building Collective Strength include increasing consumption of and access to 

locally and regional produced agricultural products to 11,000 people; increasing customers and sales of 

regional agricultural products by 483% and 240%, respectively; and developing new market 

opportunities for at least three farm operations serving Alameda County, including four CSA sites.

Recipient: Wild Local Seafood Co. LLC

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $498,119.00

Match Amount: $124,875.00

Total Project Amount: $622,994.00

Expanding Markets and Distribution Opportunities for Southern California Fishers

The purpose of the project is to directly support seafood producers’ participation in local and regional 

seafood markets in Southern California by facilitating access to farmers markets in Los Angeles, Ventura, 

and Santa Barbara Counties. Wild Local Seafood (WLS) buys seafood from fishers at a higher price than 

they would receive in global markets, and then sells that seafood at various farmers markets. By 

connecting seafood producers to direct-to-consumer outlets (farmers markets), producers get bette

prices for their catch and local consumers have increased access to locally-caught seafood. This grant

will help our organization further expand our presence at farmers markets in our region (from Santa 

Barbara to Los Angeles). Our expected outcomes during the grant period include increasing the number 

of seafood producer partners, increasing the number of farmers markets we attend, and increasing the 

pounds of seafood sold at farmers markets.

Recipient: Pacific Coast Farmers' Market Association

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $400,864.40

Match Amount: $135,570.00

Total Project Amount: $536,434.40

Recipe for Success: Educating, Engaging and Motivating Consumers through Video Marketing

Although the pandemic closed restaurants, it opened up Americans’ cupboards and cooking sensibilities. 

The pandemic-induced shift in cooking and eating habits dramatically increased home-cooked meals

Many of the 30 farmers’ markets operated by the Pacific Coast Farmers’ Market Association benefited 

from this shift, as open-air markets were considered safer shopping destinations. With the pandemic

ending, the assumption is things will return to previous norms. To maintain gains farmers made in sales 

last year, it is essential that farmers’ markets retain customer interest in home cooking to continue the 

sales farmers gained during this time. To continue to capture the attention of youth and adult 

consumers, this project will use video marketing to educate about the benefits of home cooking, using 

live and recorded video recipe demonstrations. Youth-focused videos will be distributed through an

ongoing partnership with a local school district, to promote healthy eating and life skills to elementary 

school students. Video marketing targeting adults will emphasize making unique products accessible for 

novice cooks, simple and quick recipes for busy families, and ways to maximize the use of products with 

very short growing seasons. The videos will be promoted through email, social media, SMS, and direct 

mail to reach a broad audience of 1.3 million current and potential farmers’ market shoppers. Adult 
shoppers will be offered incentives to encourage purchases of recipe ingredients and test the

effectiveness of the video education and marketing strategies. Surveys of consumers and farmers will 

track the increase in customers and farmers’ sales.

Recipient: Veggielution

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $375,165.00

Match Amount: $93,802.00

Total Project Amount: $468,967.00

East San Jose Farmers Market Capacity Building Project

Socially disadvantaged farmers and food entrepreneurs of color in Santa Clara County face obstacles to 

starting or developing businesses due to lack of access to resources, markets, supportive programs, and 

linguistic and cultural barriers stemming from institutional racism embedded in the food system. Low

income residents in and around East San José face the combined impacts of low access to nutritious, 

fresh produce and limited economic opportunity. Veggielution’s Community Resilience Hubs will train 

local food entrepreneurs and food system workers, develop consumer demand in underserved census 

tracts for organic, local produce, and connect local farmers to resources that diversify and increase 

revenue streams. Our project will assess the existing consumer need for food, farmers markets, and 

food assistance programs. We will also train local food entrepreneurs and a new worker-owned

cooperative, as well as connect local farmers of color to resources provided through Kitchen Table 

Advisors. At Veggielution farm stands located in Emma Prusch Farm Park and SoFA Pocket Park, and at 

the School of Arts and Culture Mercado, we will increase opportunities for local residents to purchase 

locally grown agricultural products. We will partner with promotoras, or community organizers, to 

conduct outreach to families and offer family-friendly cooking demonstrations and nutrition workshops.

The project will contribute to a stronger regional food economy through more integrated urban-rural

food system coordination and alternative market solutions. Low-income residents in and near East San

José will benefit from increased long-term access to healthy food, decreased food insecurity, and

improved nutrition and health outcomes.

Recipient: Planting Justice

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $500,000.00

Match Amount: $203,025.00

Total Project Amount: $703,025.00

Equity for Small Local Growers: Creating Access through Market Expansion

Many low-income families in Oakland, Richmond and El Sobrante struggle with food insecurity and

access to healthy affordable foods. At the same time, small farmers are challenged by a lack of access 

to markets and infrastructure to support produce and value-added product sales. Planting Justice’s

Equity for Small Local Growers: Creating Access through Market Expansion Project will establish a 

sales platform for small growers through the daily operation of a farmers’ market truck and weekly 

farmers’ market as well as the expansion of online retail to include value-added products, with the

goal of decreasing food disparities and increasing the prevalence of direct producer to consumer 

markets for Bay Area producers. The goals of this project are to establish a weekly farmers market 
at Planting Justice’s The Good Table site in El Sobrante that will bring together at least seven (7) 

producers and serve 200 customers/week; stablish a farmers’ market truck route with stopping 

points in East Oakland and Richmond, CA that will give market access to at least five (5) bay area 

based farmers, and serve 15,600 customers/year; expand Planting Justice’s online sales to include 

sales of value-added products from at least five (5) producers, reaching 2000 customers/year; and

provide online marketing opportunities to at least ten (10) total producers that fit the definition of 

new, beginning or socially disadvantaged farmers.

Colorado

Recipient: Western Colorado Food and Agriculture Council (DBA VFP)

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $238,174.81

Match Amount: $69,488.40

Total Project Amount: $307,663.21

Montrose Farmers Market - Growing the Future

The Montrose Farmers Market has been a direct‐to‐consumer sales venue for locally‐grown food 

products since 1978; the market is well‐established and the only year‐round farmers market in this 

region. Alongside these strengths, key needs exist: to broaden the market’s appeal to multiple 

generations, cultures, and more low‐income residents; add greater variety in the number and type of 

vendors; develop a viable and suitable business model that can assure profitability for all vendors; and 

create a data tracking system to inform decisions. “Growing the Future” will expand and strengthen the 

market’s capacity, ultimately leading to the following outcomes: development of an informed, diverse 

consumer base, and an increase in demand for local products through marketing strategies that target 

our generationally, culturally, and socio‐economically diverse community; an increase in profitability for 

existing market vendors, and the number and variety of vendors at the market through directed 

recruitment of beginning farmers, ranchers and vendor mentoring; adoption of a thoroughly‐researched 

and customized business plan to ensure profitability, accessibility, and sustainability of the market; and 

a vetted data tracking system that is robust yet straightforward. This work will be accomplished through 

the collaboration of 14 key partners, coming from both the public and private sectors, all committed to 

the success of the market and local producers. By stimulating economic growth for producers, 

strengthening the “Buy Local” culture, fostering a new generation of producers, increasing healthy food 

access for all community members, and creating long‐term market sustainability, “Growing the Future” 

will bolster the direct producer‐to‐consumer marketplace.

Recipient: The Learning Council

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $98,139.50

Match Amount: $26,135.28

Total Project Amount: $124,274.78
Growing Together: Developing and Expanding the New Local Farmers Market in Paonia, CO

Goals of The Learning Council (TLC) include cultivating a local food system economy through

collaborative partnerships, increasing product diversity, value-added foods and economic opportunities

for producers, and creating local food access and agricultural education to residents in the valley. TLC, 

working collaboratively with other nonprofits and the Town of Paonia, has taken on the expansion and 

development of AFM to create an enduring seasonal farmers market that will: provide a reliable 

marketplace for producers; increase food access and security within our community; foster a resilient 

circular economy; encourage agrotourism; provide educational and entertainment offerings, all in a safe 

outdoor environment. We have many expected outcomes that will create a robust local market. We 

anticipate an increase in the number of local food producers vending at AFM with a more diverse array 

of offerings. There will mostly likely be an increase in product variety including value-added foods. We

expect an increased number of direct producer-to-consumer sales as we implement our strategic plan

Furthermore, we expect to see an increase in low-income families and individuals accessing the Arbol

Farmers Market. We anticipate a more diverse customer base that extends to the Latino community of 

Delta County, including migrant families. Overall, we expect to see a sustained and thriving local 

marketplace where growers can count on a fruitful market season with a large customer base and ample 

opportunities for sales.

Recipient: Boulder County Farmers Markets

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $490,693.00

Match Amount: $193,564.00

Total Project Amount: $684,257.00

Getting Serious about Marketing the Local Food System

Small to mid-sized growers that make up the local food system are proving to be key to community

health and resiliency. Unlike their chain grocery counterparts- whether Krogers, Amazon, or Misfit

these producers contribute to local economic development, community investment, place-making, and

environmental stewardship. Also, unlike their counterparts, they are invisible to most of the population.

In a world inundated with advertising messages, local farmers and ranchers live in the shadow of 

national brands. Estimates of the advertising spend by grocery stores alone are as high as $246B per 

year. The CMO Survey, indicates the marketing spend for CPG products averages 24% of revenue. A 

sampling of our 70+ local small to mid-sized farmer and rancher members, on the other hand, indicates

that their typical marketing budgets range between $500 to $7,500 per year (0.25% and 2% of total 

revenue). Despite close proximity to their customers, sustained efforts to promote local producers are 

critical to their ongoing growth, financial sustainability, and increasing the amount of land under 

cultivation. Our goal is to demonstrate that a marketing campaign based on commercial best practices 

and working directly with producers to upgrade their own marketing will drive sales growth in the local 

food system and ultimately pay for itself. Outputs include a refined strategy and detailed marketing 

plan, development of key performance indicators, weekly marketing activity according to the plan, 

monthly reports against KPIs, and a final summary paper detailing activities and actual outcomes relative 

to expectations. Expected outcomes include 25% annual growth of online orders, 15% annual growth in 

on-street market sales by participating growers, and a return on marketing that creates a self-sustainin

program into the future.
Connecticut

Recipient: The Northeast Organic Farming Association of Connecticut

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $495,866.77

Match Amount: $56,266.74

Total Project Amount: $552,133.51

Building Community Food Security through Northeast CSA Farm Share

Due to the program’s success in Vermont and New Hampshire, Farm Share will expand to provide 

limited income residents of the 5 remaining states of the Northeast (NY, MA, CT, RI, NJ) with the 

opportunity to support their local CSA farmer and receive reliable access to high-quality produce on a

weekly basis through an innovative cost-share model. We believe that all people have a right to access

local, healthy food. We believe in strengthening the network that exists between consumers and 

farmers as a means to strengthen the fabric of our agrarian economy and contribute to the physical and 

spiritual nourishment of all people. Farm Share provides limited income individuals and families with the 

opportunity to participate in the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) economy. Spearheaded by the 

Northeast Organic Farming Association of Connecticut (CT NOFA), this region-wideprogram is designed

to make local, nourishing food more accessible while, equally importantly, still providing CSA farmers 

with a fair price and increase in market opportunity. By supporting the sale of CSA shares, we can 

increase the number of individuals and families that are nourished by our farms while ensuring farm 

viability and protecting our working lands. We believe that in strengthening the CSA business model, we 

will contribute to a more ecologically sound, economically viable, and socially resilient food system in 

the Northeast.

Florida

Recipient: Santa Fe College

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $560,202.00

Match Amount: $145,256.00

Total Project Amount: $705,458.00

Florida Heritage Foods Initiative: Connecting Local Food with Local Culture in Florida Farmers Markets

Heritage foods represent one of the fastest growing sectors of the food industry in Florida as an 

increasingly diverse population is fueling demand for foods that embody social, cultural and historical 

value. Yet, farmers in Florida farmers markets face difficulties selling heritage foods because current 

customers are usually unfamiliar with new food varieties, and knowledge barriers prevent customers 

from accessing heritage foods for sale at farmers markets. Farmers market customers need information 

about heritage foods, and farmers markets need inclusive multicultural outreach to the diverse 

population of consumers driving the heritage food industry in Florida. The purpose of the Florida 

Heritage Foods Initiative: Connecting Local Food with Local Culture in Florida Farmers Markets is to 

stimulate the heritage food economy in Florida farmers markets by providing education about heritage 

foods for consumers and providing farmers markets with tools to reach culturally diverse communities 
already purchasing heritage food. The goals of this project are to: 1) increase access to heritage foods in 

farmers markets with educational marketing materials for farmers, consumers, and K-12 students that

provide information about the cultural, historical, nutritional and culinary value of heritage foods, 2) 

expand direct-to-consumer marketing opportunities with a Multicultural Heritage Food Event Plannin

Tool-Kit for farmers markets, and 3) provide training and education on heritage foods to farmers,

market managers, and local food stakeholders through three virtual and on-site symposiums

Recipient: Florida Certified Organic Growers and Consumers Inc.

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $332,274.81

Match Amount: $83,138.00

Total Project Amount: $415,412.81

Enhancing and Expanding Market Opportunities for Farmers and Healthy Food Access to Consumers 

by Building Stronger Relationships via a Virtual Farmers Market Experience in Florida

The distribution, sale, and consumption of local and healthy foods in Florida is challenging for many 

farmers and consumers in our state. Florida Organic Growers and Consumers Inc. (FOG) started the 

Florida Farmers Market Association (FFMA) to bring together farmers market managers, vendors, 

consumers, and organizations to find solutions to these problems. The COVID-19 pandemic provided

more evidence of the urgent need to develop and implement systems that provide opportunities for 

farmers and consumers to work together to help make our current food distribution system more 

efficient and equitable. Our project uses a virtual farmers market platform to empower producers and 

consumers and provide opportunities to build strong, dynamic, and interactive exchanges that enables 

them to sell and purchase food with flexibility and efficiency. We are confident that our project 

addresses future problems that citizens may face during adverse circumstances like pandemics or 

existing ones such as residing in food deserts or personal schedules to travel and visit physical farmers 

markets when it is not feasible. Our project is not limited to farmers and consumers who buy and sell at 

farmers markets nor is meant to replace the existing farmers market system. Rather, the goal is to 

provide new opportunities for farmers to market and sell their products, while still maintaining the 

ability to make connections with consumers similar to those made in a physical location and together 

share their food related experiences and be part of an effort to find solutions to problem that affects 

numerous people in our communities every day.

Recipient: A Simpler Place in Time Inc.

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $191,660.00

Match Amount: $53,273.60

Total Project Amount: $244,933.60

The 2021 Virtual Agritourism Implementation and Online Farmer’s Market Expansion Project

The COVID pandemic forced us to close our agritourism program and in‐person shopping at our roadside 

stand that supported twenty‐one farmers and ranchers who also lost their main outlets for selling. In 

response, we moved the roadside stand shopping experience online with contactless pick up and home 

delivery; using a 16‐year‐old van with over 300k miles to continue aggregating from local producers and 

to deliver orders.While the implementation of the online farmers market was accelerated in response to 

COVID, its long‐ term purpose beyond the crisis remains, to support local producers by providing a year‐
round market to sell their products and to increase access to local and regional agricultural products. 

We specifically want to focus on increasing access to underserved communities as they have been hit 

particularly hard during this pandemic. With community business collaborations in LI/LA tracts, we will 

create pick‐up locations for the online farmers market where customers can pick‐up local food in their 

own communities.And finally, closing our agritourism program resulted in a loss of income to not only 

our farm but others who had to do the same. Customers sought out our classes online. However, we 

lacked the funding and expertise to implement. With key partnerships we will work with experts in the 

area(s) of online content creation to make an interactive virtual agritourism classroom which supports a 

minimum of eighteen local farms and ranches and provides free access and outreach to new, beginning 

and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers.

Georgia

Recipient: Community Farmers Markets Inc. (CFM)

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $736,645.80

Match Amount: $185,500.00

Total Project Amount: $922,145.80

Availability, Awareness, and Affordability: Removing Barriers to Local Food Access in Atlanta

Community Farmers Markets (CFM) is a farmers market umbrella organization in Atlanta, GA, that 

develops local food infrastructure for long term sustainability and meaningful community impact. 

Through our project, “Availability, Awareness, and Affordability: Removing Barriers to Local Food Access 

in Atlanta,” CFM tackles three significant barriers to food access – availability, awareness, and 

affordability - through a holistic, four-pronged approach to growing local food systems. The four pro

-- local food distribution (farmers markets, public transit markets, the Crop Cycle, the General Store, an

pop-ups), community education and outreach programming, vendor support, and financial incentives

(SNAP match and various incentives detailed below) - grow the viability of existing markets and lay th

foundation for further establishment and expansion of local food systems. Our project will expand 

distribution opportunities via both traditional farmers markets and innovative distribution programs; 

increase consumer awareness, attendance, purchasing, and knowledge via marketing efforts, consumer 

education and community outreach; address affordability for vendors by removing financial barriers via 

direct financial supports and for consumers through the expansion of incentive programs; and develop 

local food system ecosystem through vendor support programs, market management support, and 

consulting services. Through these programs, CFM serves hundreds of local farmers and ranchers, 

thousands of customers in metro Atlanta, and provides sustainable living wage careers. We will leverage 

our unique position as a local food systems hub to share lessons learned that will promote thriving, 

holistic approaches to farmers market development and statewide vendor support.

Recipient: Seven Rivers Resource Conservation & Development Area Inc.

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $389,395.00

Match Amount: $38,957.50

Total Project Amount: $428,352.50
Visit SOWEGA: Promoting Immersive Agritourism Experiences in Southwest Georgia

Seven Rivers Resource Conservation and Development Area, Inc. will conduct a three-year FMPP project

to support agritourism operations in Southwest Georgia through a marketing and education initiative. 

The goal of this project, which has evolved as a response to the injurious economic effects of COVID-19

on local farms, is to raise the collective gross revenue of agritourism operations in the project area by 50 

percent by 2024. This goal will be achieved through intensive online and multimedia marketing, annual 

meetings and workshops, and planning steps to organize a formal farmer-led agritourism association. By

the conclusion of the project, no fewer than 25 farms will report an increase in sales and understanding 

of agritourism best practices.

Hawaii

Recipient: Hawaii Farm Trails

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $369,716.00

Match Amount: $126,138.00

Total Project Amount: $495,854.00

E Pili Kākou: Mindful Approaches to Closing the Gap between the Farmer and Consumer in Postpandemic Hawaii

Hawaii Farm Trails aims to close the gap between famers and consumer by expanding its agritourism 

program and developing a technological virtual and physical hub to help build farmers’ capacity. The 

project aims to expand current agritourism promotional capabilities by offering driving and guided farm 

trails. These farm trails are the first of its kind for the State of Hawaii moving the web and mobile-based

application from a passive listing of farms, farmers markets and events, to a robust agritourism 

operation that actively provides visitor and local communities with curated options to directly interact 

with farms and markets. Setting up this operation will be a participatory process informed by local 

community members to ensure that the farmers and their surrounding communities can move forward 

effectively together. 

Hawaii Farm Trails will also develop a tech and information hub for its membership of farmers and 

markets that will provide a central virtual and physical space for farm business to learn more about 

value-added product packaging, branding and marketing. This innovative project will provide co-op bae

resources to cut costs and address needs from the agricultural communities looking for support in 

finding and attracting customers for their on-farm experiences and particularly for their value-adde

products and stores.
Indiana

Recipient: Heartland Communities Inc.

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $368,250.00

Match Amount: $88,263.00

Total Project Amount: $456,513.00

Market Access for Refugee Farmers

Resettled refugees in Northeast Indiana who have a farming background face barriers to success at 

every step toward their vocation of choice. Language, regulations, financial system, permitting, 

resources, growing climate, seasonal production parameters, and markets are just a few complex 

systems to navigate toward applying the farm skills they have developed. Sixteen Burmese refugee 

farmes have a path through the complex barriers with the Refugee Incubator Farm Project, with 

instruction and interpretive services that are respectful to cultural needs, sensitive to trauma in personal 

histories on their way to living their dream life as vegetable farmers. Purpose: to increase success with 

additional supports in completing a robust, processing and marketing situation. Outcome: viable farms 

supported by a wrap-around service from post-harvest to direct-sale through membership in

cooperative. This project will provide opportunities for incubator participants to: 1. Fulfill untapped 

market demand with culturally appropriate fresh produce; 2. Expand capacity with value-added

products to create new revenue streams and reduce food waste; 3. Fully staff mobile markets to bring 

farm products into diverse low-income neighborhoods; 4. Provide guidance and interpretive services for

non-English speakers to negotiate farm market application process; 5. Subsidize refugee incubator farm

participants to receive services provided by cooperative food hub distribution such as bookkeeping, 

sales, and online presence,; 6. Increase capacity of online sales platform (Open Food Network USA) to 

provide internet sales for farmers, and subscribe the cooperative to the platform at the broadest level 

for dozens of producer shopfronts.

Iowa

Recipient: Iowa Food Foundation 

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $123,573.00

Match Amount: $12,358.00

Total Project Amount: $135,931.00

Exploring Technology Adaptation and Community Accessibility for a Successful Online Local Food 

Market Model

Small-scale Iowa producers have benefited greatly from the emergence of online local food cooperatives

which offer increased efficiency through the management of distribution, guaranteed sales before 

needing to harvest or transport a product, and collective marketing benefits. Over the course of this 

project, the Iowa Food Foundation (IFF) will address many barriers to online shopping within the local 

food sector and look to develop tools that can be rapidly adopted by other local agriculture markets.
First, the Iowa Food Coop (IFC), will be the trial site for a brand new open source shopping cart platform 

for online food cooperatives. To maximize the potential of the new platform, the IFF will gather 

producer and consumer feedback on the new system, then use that information to create video tutorials 

and training modules for both producers and cooperatives. Second, the project will assess ways to 

increase consumer education, and therefore greater support of local food markets, by creating a series 

of workshop modules and developing an accompanying resource library regarding local food and the 

importance of supporting regenerative agriculture. As a final product the lessons learned and findings 

will be organized and offered as tools alongside the refined, open-source, online shopping cart platform

itself. The end result will be easy adoption and implementation by other online markets, expanding the 

sales of local foods.

Recipient: Resource Conservation and Development for Northeast Iowa Inc

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $332,303.63

Match Amount: $88,611.60

Total Project Amount: $420,915.23

Northeast Iowa Farmers Market Manager Training Program: Development of Iowa Market Manager 

Certification program and Pilot Implementation Project in 6 Northeast Iowa Communities

The State of Iowa is at the center of America’s heartland and is home to an abundance of farmers 

markets which aim to connect the community to its rural agricultural roots. These markets have seen 

unpreceded challenges in the past few years, between rising land prices, world-wide pandemic, and

access to resources. The RC&D is looking to enhance the successful Iowa Farmers Market Toolkit 

through the implementation of the Northeast Iowa Farmers Market Manager Certification Program: 

Development of the Iowa Farmers Market Manager Certification Program and Pilot Implementation 

Project in Northeast Iowa. The previously developed toolkit has spurred the need to further enhance 

these resources by developing a set of 15 training modules that will provide a template and structure to 

ensure market managers glean the necessary information required to become successful market 

managers. This program will be piloted by six selected communities across Northeast Iowa, each market 

will receive one-on-one technical assistance, success kits, and a strategic action steps that will ensur

the short-term success of the market and a plan to address systemic long-term farmers marke

challenges found in rural Iowa.

Recipient: Practical Farmers of Iowa

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $208,345.00

Match Amount: $54,835.00

Total Project Amount: $263,180.00

Strengthening Markets and Business Practices for Direct-to-Consumer Specialty Crop Producers in 

Iowa

Fruit, vegetable and flower farmers in Iowa face substantial challenges. The distribution, risk 

management and financial tools, products and advisors for specialty crop and local foods are under‐ 

resourced – particularly compared to conventional row‐crop agriculture in the state. At the same time, 

the on‐farm product and marketing diversity required to make a living with local food production 
requires intensive management. Despite the myriad challenges they face, there is a strong constituency 

of specialty crop farmers in Iowa who are committed to growing local food for their communities. They 

have the motivation, work ethic and potential to increase the sale and consumption of fruits and 

vegetables in communities across Iowa. This project, “Strengthening Markets and Business Practices for 

Direct‐to‐Consumer Specialty Crop Producers in Iowa,” proposes to support specialty crop producers in 

Iowa by: 1) enhancing direct‐to‐ consumer markets through increased consumer knowledge and 

enthusiasm about local food opportunities, 2) providing market evaluation and business coaching to 

equip individual farmers to grow their markets, businesses and profits and 3) disseminating what they 

learn to growers across the state through PFI channels. We anticipate that we will reach 200,000 Iowans 

through our first objective which includes a robust, diversified outreach campaign. We anticipate we will 

directly reach 480 farmers with our second and third objectives: 14 will receive one‐on‐one

consultation, and 480 will attend educational events about market development. These farmers will 

increase their knowledge and make changes to improve the market supply and demand of direct‐to‐

consumer specialty crops in Iowa.

Recipient: Sustainable Iowa Land Trust

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $173,012.12

Match Amount: $52,761.25

Total Project Amount: $225,773.37

Small Farm Summer: Marketing Iowa’s Local Farms to Their Neighbors

Market to Farm: Bringing Iowans Back to Their Food “Small Farm Summer: Marketing Iowa’s Local Farms 

to Their Neighbors” is an annual open house series that will invite the public to visit and interact with 

table food farms in their rural communities. The purpose is to highlight and increase sales at retail farms 

while educating the public about the current realities that small farms face, including how land use 

determines local food security, and how distance-to-market affects the bottom line. Many rural Iowan

don’t even know that a table food farm exists in their area, no less that land debt determines so much of 

a farmer’s choices. Yet, as such farms and their markets grow, SILT is making land affordable to 

beginning table food farmers while preserving it for generations to come. Across three summers of 

“Small Farm Summer” open house events, thousands of people will visit Iowa’s small- and medium-size

farms to enjoy a farm tour. As they listen to music, engage with a cooking tutorial that highlights farm 

products, and peruse farm products for sale, visitors will also receive information about the value of 

preserving direct-to-consumer farms on Iowa’s landscape. By deepening their relationships with Iowa’

small farms, more Iowans will be likely to adopt local food-buying habits and become repeat customers

at SILT farms, contributing to a more sustainable future of food.

Recipient: Lutheran Services in Iowa Inc.

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $288,072.00

Match Amount: $75,000.00

Total Project Amount: $363,072.00
Expanding Market Channels to Increase Opportunities for Refugee and Immigrant Specialty Crop 

Producers in Iowa

LSI has worked refugee and immigrants who came to Iowa desiring to farm as a business since 2013 

through its Global Greens program, successfully cultivating connections to land, training and markets 

which has allowed farmers to realize increased customer and sales growth each year. Through this 

project, LSI will develop and implement a plan to build on its previous work and increase market 

opportunities for new and existing refugee and immigrant farmers in order to ensure their long term 

sustainability and growth through three main objectives: Objective 1-To rebrand the Global Greens

Market as the Welcome Center Market to increase reach and sales; Objective 2-To provide enhanced

Training and Technical Assistance to Refugee and Immigrant farmers in Iowa to connect to additional 

external market opportunities sustainably; Objective 3-To expand the Global Greens CSA to offer new

services, delivery days and reach new customers.

Kentucky

Recipient: Community Farm Alliance Inc.

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $599,913.00

Match Amount: $120,202.90

Total Project Amount: $720,115.90

The Farmers Market Resiliency Project: Strengthening and Stabilizing the Farmers Markets of 

Kentucky through a Comprehensive Market Training Program, Technical Assistance, and a Peer-toPeer Network

Since 2014, Community Farm Alliance (CFA) has strengthened Kentucky’s farmers markets through 

implementation of CFA’s Farmers Market Support Program. Through this work, CFA has gained a deeper 

understanding of the wide range of challenges facing Kentucky’s farmers markets, learning that 

challenges are deeply rooted in and unique to individual markets and the communities they serve. As a 

result, many markets don’t respond effectively to streamlined solutions in marketing, vendor retention, 

and organizational structures. CFA learned that market stability is directly impacted by community

based issues surrounding vendor recruitment and retention, market governance, maintaining a paid 

market manager, and successfully engaging the community. The Farmers Market Resiliency Project 

responds directly to community-based challenges, by working alongside project partners to build a

comprehensive support system for Kentucky’s farmers markets. Specifically, The Farmers Market 

Resiliency Project will provide markets with three types of support 1) a streamlined and adaptive 

farmers market training program that provides comprehensive support to the entire market, by 

including modules and technical assistance specific to not only the market manager, but to vendors, and 

board members; 2) tailored and responsive technical assistance for new and struggling markets; and 3) a 

peer-to-peer learning network. The overarching project objective is to strengthen and stabiliz

participating markets and create marketing spaces that lead to increased vendor sales and on-farm

revenue, culminating in dependable farmers market outlets that strengthen Kentucky’s local and 

regional food system infrastructure. This project will provide 20 markets with intensive training and 

strengthen 100 markets through technical assistance and education.
Recipient: Kentucky State University

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $349,761.50

Match Amount: $113,400.00

Total Project Amount: $463,161.50

Helping Small-scale and Socially Disadvantaged Growers in Improving Water Quality to Ensure Food 

Safety of Produce for Consumers and Increased Sales

This project will help small-scale and socially disadvantaged growers increase marketing of produce

directly to consumers by improving water quality. Many growers use surface water sources for irrigation 

that can lead to pathogenic E.coli contamination of produce. More than 75% of farmers in Kentucky 

have sales of less than $25,000 per year, a produce sale threshold that below which growers are not 

required to implement the Produce Safety Rule of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). However, 

to increase produce sales, many growers will need assistance in improving water quality to be FSMA 

compliant and possibly GAP certified. Therefore, the project objectives are to: 1) Provide water quality 

testing to determine the presence of E.coli in irrigation water for small-scale/minority farmers by

creating three testing sites in Kentucky with accompanying technical support; 2) Offer consultations to 

producers on water test results and provide strategies for mitigation efforts, especially for farmers with 

poor results; 3) Provide educational support to farmers concerning the importance of water quality and 

produce safety; and 4) Connect farmers to resources to increase their sales after becoming FSMA 

compliant. This initiative would also offer education efforts through Kentucky Center for Agriculture and 

Rural Development, Kentucky Department of Agriculture, Organic Association of Kentucky, Appalachian 

Groundswell and a number of associations and entities working with small-scale and socially

disadvantaged farmers. Through these efforts, the project will educate 2,000 growers and result in 150 

producers improving water quality and increasing produce sales by becoming FSMA compliant.

Recipient: University of Kentucky

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $503,581.22

Match Amount: $183,503.00

Total Project Amount: $687,084.22

Innovations for CSA Market Development and Shareholder Expansion - Marketing and Metrics

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) became an increasingly popular food acquisition model during 

the COVID-19 pandemic. Existing CSAs reported many first-time shareholders. Many farms shifted t

online ordering systems and customization. Some farmers diversified into CSA to replace lost income in 

other markets. Other sectors developed CSA-like box products in their own pandemic-related pivot

Lines between direct market types blurred as different sectors collaborated to meet changing food 

needs and preferences. Consequently, the marketing landscape for CSA is changing rapidly.

We propose a set of objectives to maintain CSA’s newfound popularity beyond the pandemic by 

developing technical assistance (TA) networks that evaluate changing consumer preferences and build 

bridges to diverse CSA-adjacent communities of practice. Our goal is to create and sustain market

opportunities for existing and potential CSA farmers through TA resource provision and expanded 

network building. To accomplish this goal, we employ multiple strategies. First, we will evaluate 

characteristics of different shareholder types and market trends to create marketing messages and 

online engagement strategies that aid in shareholder recruitment and retention. Second, we will 
develop TA resources for and relationships with University-based personnel to facilitate the creation of

incentivized CSA-to-University programs. Third, we will convene a farm business metrics working grou

to address data gaps, prioritize strategies for farm-, system-, and national-level data collection, a

identify vital applied research topics. These activities are intended to improve CSA stakeholder data 

literacy and decision-making in many areas. Finally, we support all objectives by expanding and

diversifying our existing national CSA TA network.

Recipient: Western Kentucky University

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $634,207.00

Match Amount: $160,807.00

Total Project Amount: $795,014.00

Consumer-oriented WIDE Partnership for Farmers Markets and Other Direct-to-consumer Market 

Outlets

Western Kentucky University, Southcentral Kentucky Farmers Market, Community Farmers Market, 

Bowling Green Farmers Market, Foundation for Connecting Communities, and Need More Acres Farm 

have established a consumer-oriented partnership to Wage a marketing campaign, Invigorate/revitalize

pre-COVID successes, Develop new strategies, and Expand awareness and access to direct producer-

consumer market outlets. Overall, this partnership’s primary purpose is to WIDEn direct producer-t

consumer market outlets and increase consumption of locally-grown agricultural products. Specific

objectives are to: (i) Wage a marketing campaign both online and offline to increase awareness of and 

encouragement to attend farmers markets and other direct-to-consumer market outlets, (ii

Invigorate/revitalize pre-COVID successes in making farmers markets more convenient and in providing

training and technical assistance to local agricultural producers, (iii) Develop strategies for participating 

farmers markets to diversify vendors and produce items and for growers to diversify their market 

portfolio, and (iv) Expand awareness, access, consumption, and availability of locally-grown farm and

ranch products among majority and minority consumers, including low-income and pregnant women.

These objectives allow WIDE partnership to meet the need of promoting local farmers markets and 

other direct-to-consumer market outlets. Major expected outcomes include: (i) increased awarenes

about direct-to-consumer market outlets by at least 40%, (ii) accelerated pace of recovery from COV

19 effects, (iii) increased diversity at farmers markets and in direct-to-consumer market portfolio by a

least 15%, (iv) expanded access and consumption of local/regional agricultural products by at least 30% 

and increased revenues for local/regional farmers by at least 20%.

Recipient: Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky Inc.

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $435,287.80

Match Amount: $43,750.00

Total Project Amount: $479,037.80

Northfork Local Food Expansion Project

A robust, year‐round regional food economy is a key part of a diversified economic strategy in the wake 

of the coal industry’s decline in southeastern Kentucky. Community leaders, organizations, and farmers 

are working to develop new direct producer‐to‐consumer market opportunities and increase production 

capacity and consumer demand. Local agricultural products are increasingly viewed as necessary to 
bolster our economy and address our region’s food insecurity, the high rate of which was exacerbated 

by the pandemic. The Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky, Northfork Local Food, and Community 

Farm Alliance are leaders in this effort. Together, they are strengthening our regional food economy by 

connecting philanthropic and public dollar investments to support a strong infrastructure for producers 

and consumers in the region. The Northfork Local Food Expansion Project will continue this momentum 

toward our desired outcomes: 1) agriculture is a viable local economic development strategy in the 

region; (2) the regional food system is resilient, providing high quality and reliable products to 

consumers while enabling farmers to earn a living; and (3) local agricultural products are a key part of 

achieving wide-spread food security. Our project objectives: Increase farming income by connecting

farmers to season extension and business growth opportunities, resources, and peer‐to‐peer 

networking; develop new producer-to-consumer market opportunities for local agricultural product

while maintaining and strengthening existing opportunities; expand the number of SNAP participants 

and other low‐income households who purchase local agricultural products; and increase consumer 

awareness of quick, healthy preparation techniques to encourage the purchase of local agricultural 

products.

Louisiana

Recipient: Big River Economic and Agricultural Development Alliance

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $591,579.00

Match Amount: $148,000.00

Total Project Amount: $739,579.00

Red Stick Refresh: Connecting Farmers & Families for a Resilient Local Food System

The Red Stick Refresh project aims to respond to a volatile recent history for food producers and 

residents in the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, area. Louisiana is known for having among the poorest health 

outcomes in the nation, and the implications of an unhealthy population were put on display by the 

state’s disproportionately high coronavirus mortality rate. Downstream effects continue to negatively 

impact the population, primarily through food insecurity and low incomes. These recent happenings, 

coupled with multiple severe weather events that jeopardized the sustainability of the small, family 

farms who participate in the Red Stick Farmers Markets, demonstrate the need to invest in building a 

resilient local food system that supports the viability of farms, ranches, and fisheries and fosters 

community engagement and healthy eating. This project will use a multilevel approach to provide 

technical assistance and training for producers; design and execute a comprehensive marketing 

campaign to rebrand BREADA, promote its programs, and build authentic connections with the 

community; facilitate collaboration among Louisiana farmers markets; and determine data collection 

methods to track sales and customer counts and establish a post-COVID baseline of indicators

Outcomes for producers will include improved business practices, a larger, more diverse customer base, 

and access to new product development or retail opportunities; outcomes for residents will include 

increased awareness of the importance of supporting a local food system, as well as equitable access to 

fresh, local food.
Maryland

Recipient: Tricounty Council for Southern Maryland

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $599,703.32

Match Amount: $187,494.00

Total Project Amount: $787,197.32

Building Resilience in Southern Maryland Producer-to-Consumer Initiatives: Developing and 

Expanding Direct Producer-to-consumer Markets and Increasing Access to Local Foods in Southern 

Maryland

The Southern Maryland Farmers Market Promotion Program develops, coordinates, and expands direct 

producer-to-consumer markets to help increase access to and availability of regionally produce

agricultural products in the five counties of Southern Maryland (Anne Arundel, Charles, Calvert, Prince 

George’s, and St. Mary’s.) The project provides print and digital marketing support for local farmers 

markets and farm stands in the region, an annual Buy Local Challenge event, the provision of volunteer 

market coordinators and training camp; technical assistance for producers interested in Cottage Foods 

and Acidified Foods production. The project will undertake a full review of the Maryland Market Money 

food access program with an advisory committee to evaluate and plan for expansion to socially 

disadvantaged, senior, and veteran consumers and producers. A new strategic plan for Maryland Market 

Money will focus on the continuation and sustainability of the program, and options for technology to 

replace the tokens and management systems used today. A highly targeted digital ad campaign will 

connect federal nutrition benefits shoppers to direct to consumer outlets including farmers markets, 

farm stands, on-farm markets, and CSAs that accept SNAP and FMNP benefits as payment. The project

creates the Southern Maryland Farmers Market Innovation and Capacity Building Program to provide 

technical assistance to markets camp; producers to support the latest technology and reduce their 

administrative burden. It provides technical assistance to enhance markets/producers; branding and 

social media efforts to increase farm and market revenues and promote healthy local foods to 

consumers throughout the region.

Massachusetts

Recipient: Regional Environmental Council (REC)

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $497,823.46

Match Amount: $124,455.87

Total Project Amount: $622,279.33

Growing Market Opportunities for Worcester Area Farmers: Recovery and Expansion through 

Increased Markets, Farmer Training, Product Diversity, and Culturally Responsive Marketing

The REC will engage local rural and urban farmers and low- income seniors and families to expand and

improve our two standing farmers’ markets and Mobile Farmers Market program to achieve the 

following goals: Respond to and recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 on our local food system by
increasing opportunities for the sale of local food, supporting producers return to farmers markets, and 

increasing awareness and use of Federal and state food security programs that support the purchase of 

local food; Increase impact and sustainability of REC’s Mobile Farmers Market program through 

increased Mobile Market sites; Expand the geographic scope of local food access points by bringing 

year-round Mobile Market locations to Worcester’s South County; Increase customer base of Main

South and Beaver Brook markets as Mobile Market sites through collaborative and culturally responsive 

outreach and increased product diversity at market; Engage with consumers and producers of local food 

to develop more efficient, appealing, and accessible markets for the customers we serve; and Increase 

opportunities for non-conventional new farmers (youth, immigrants, refugees, etc.) through sales

opportunities, technical support, and employment pathways.

Recipient: Nuestras Raices Inc.

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $440,910.00

Match Amount: $49,698.40

Total Project Amount: $490,608.40

Parate Aqui Mercado (Stop Here Market): Expanding Point-of-Sale and Fresh-Food Access to Locallygrown, Culturally Relevant Foods in Holyoke, MA

“Parate Aquí Mercado (Stop Here Market): Expanding Point-of-Sale and Fresh-Food Access to Loca

Grown, Culturally-Relevant Foods in Holyoke, MA” will increase access-to and availability-of locally a

regionally produced agricultural products, while expanding direct producer-to-consumer market

through launching Nuestras Raíces’ La Tienda Farm Store, CSA program, Farm Stand Pop-Ups, and

piloting Nuestro Sofrito (Nuestras Raíces’ cooperatively-sourced, value-added product venture), throug

cross-community collaborations. Systemic disinvestment from Holyoke’s economic and social

infrastructure, and the pandemic, have resulted in 1) low-income/low-access Holyoke residents wit

limited access to fresh, affordable, culturally-relevant foods, and 2) disproportionately limited and shu

down market opportunities for Holyoke’s socially-disadvantaged and predominantly Latino farmers and

food entrepreneurs. However, Nuestras Raíces farmers bring a wealth of agricultural experience and 

culture, and as a community we are ready to rebuild through “Parate Aquí Mercado,” a creative, 

community-driven approach to meeting these needs and opportunities. Project goals include: 1) Restore

and improve direct-to-consumer outlets and economic opportunities for socially-disadvantage

predominantly Latino farmers and food entrepreneurs; 2) Increasing access to and availability of 

affordable, locally-sourced, and culturally-relevant produce to low- and middle- income residents

Holyoke. Expected outcomes for Parate Aquí Mercado include momentous increases to residents’ 

consumption of locally produced foods, increased direct markets for socially-disadvantaged farmers and

entrepreneurs, and new/expanded local food enterprises. “Parate Aquí Mercado” project goals are in 

alignment with USDA AMS goals, and position Nuestras Raíces as a longtime, critical driver of local, 

agricultural economic development in Holyoke and across the wider Pioneer Valley.
Michigan

Recipient: Michigan Farmers Market Association

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $134,526.00

Match Amount: $13,453.00

Total Project Amount: $147,979.00

Investing in Market Managers to Reduce Turnover and Sustain Farmers Markets

Frequent transitions in market management and leadership are detrimental to a market’s sustainability 

and growth. In Michigan, like other areas of the country, market managers are notoriously 

undercompensated for their role. Unplanned or frequent transitions in market management can 

negatively impact a market’s overall performance, and poorly compensated and unpaid positions are 

difficult to fill. As market managers leave, institutional knowledge is lost and relationships with vendors, 

shoppers, and the community must be rebuilt. The Community Farm Alliance (CFA) of Kentucky has built 

a cost-share model to address this issue. As the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the challenges o

appropriately compensating market managers, MIFMA intends to adapt the program model to fit 

market needs in Michigan, using data that was collected in MIFMA’s 2020 Census of Michigan Farmers 

Markets to inform the work. Grant funds will be used to develop an operations manual for future 

implementation, create program documents such as application and selection criteria, and establish 

evaluation plans to ensure programmatic success. Additionally, MIFMA intends to create a searchable 

database of open farmers market jobs on our website alongside resources, shared through a virtual 

Legacy Binder, to guide markets through periods of leadership transition. MIFMA will measure the 

impacts of expanded resources through a partnership with a local food marketing firm, incorporating 

questions about compensation into their annual market listing update. This will allow for data collection 

yearly from the more than 100 markets to assess impacts and areas for improvement.

Recipient: Michigan State University

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $547,453.25

Match Amount: $185,825.73

Total Project Amount: $733,278.98

Farm to Everyone: Utilizing a Statewide Network to Build Regional Capacity for Local CSA Farmers to 

Serve all Local Residents

This project will build on the foundational work of the Statewide Michigan Community Supported 

Agriculture (CSA) Network and implement strategies and key outcomes from the National CSA 

Innovation Network. The project will build adaptability and resiliency into direct to consumer markets 

that uplift parallel goals of fostering farm viability and increasing accessibility to low-incom

communities. This project aims to meet the following objectives: Support the continued development 

and capacity of the Statewide Michigan CSA Network; Develop CSA customer resources and a statewide 

marketing campaign, including resources specific for low-income, spanish-speaking, arabic-speaking a

first-time CSA members; Provide farmer training and support to build resilient and adaptive direct-

consumer sales programs, with an emphasis on food safety and marketing, and increase participation in 

food access related programs; Contribute to the continued development of the National CSA Innovation 
Network and apply lessons learned; and Conduct CSA farmer and consumer research to understand 

factors affecting participation and retention. At the onset of the pandemic in 2020, CSA farms in 

Michigan experienced a significant uptick in CSA interest and participation, which reflected national 

trends, in response to consumer recognition of the importance of investing in resilient, regional food 

systems and concern for food safety. One year after the initial COVID-19 surge, it is evident continued

support and consumer education is necessary to retain a high level of participation. This project will 

address critical and timely needs to sustain momentum for CSA participation and to foster an inclusive 

and accessible statewide food system.

Recipient: Allen Neighborhood Center

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $315,109.90

Match Amount: $79,340.00

Total Project Amount: $394,449.90

Allen Farmers Market: Expansion, Collaboration, Intra-Neighborhood Transit, and Urban Agri-Tourism

Serving the northeast quadrant of Michigan’s Capital City, the 18 year-old, year-round Allen Farmer

Market is relocating within our block-sized complex. This move is a result of the creation of Allen Place,

our new, mixed-use development featuring 21 apartments, a federally qualified health clinic to serve

low-moderate income neighbors, a consignment grocery store partnering with local farmers, and an

Accelerator Kitchen, home to four food start-ups. We believe that the community-driven Allen Plac

development will re-invigorate our Farmers Market after twin challenges of COVID and construction. It

will offer new opportunities to collaborate with multiple on-site stakeholders, including the Clinic, ELFCO

Consignment Grocery/Food Co-op, and businesses in our Accelerator Kitchen, to mutually promote

services and co-create events to draw new patrons to the Market. Given reduced on-site car parking i

the complex, we will create intra-neighborhood and other transit options, including partnering with our

local transit authority for a shelter and enhanced bus service. We will also utilize pedi-cabs to give

patrons that walk to the Market a lift home with their purchases. We also seek support for the Hunter 

Park GardenHouse, our urban farm located 2 blocks from Allen Place in a 13-acre park. We will

vigorously promote urban agri-tourism through educational tours of our year-round, 96’ X 30

greenhouse and in an acre of cultivated parkland. The agri-tourism offerings will also include tours of a

selection of the 12-15 local urban farms on Lansing’s Eastside

Minnesota

Recipient: Farm Commons Inc.

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $382,512.00

Match Amount: $38,251.00

Total Project Amount: $420,763.00

Growing Into Deep Legal Resilience for Direct Market Farmers Nationwide

Our nation’s direct market and value-added operations are legally vulnerable to an alarming degree.

Especially after the pandemic where we saw farmers nationwide turn to direct marketing, we must give 

famers the support they need to become legally resilient or the promise of sustainability and economic 
viability will wilt on the vine. Farmers want and need legal education, but good quality materials that 

offer the depth and focus they need are impossible to find. Our successful basic farm law education 

program (funded via an FMPP grant) raised the bar and created baseline resilience for farmers 

nationwide, but farmers need advanced information, including Spanish-speaking producers. Now, it’s

time to deepen legal resilience for the entire community of direct market and value added producers 

nationwide. Not only do we have an influx of farmers pursuing direct market options as a result of the 

pandemic, we have surging interest in more complex legal issues. A wide set of dynamic education 

resources that includes guides, online courses, and Farmer Solutions Sessions doesn’t just teach- it

delivers authentic change, develops regional farmer-leaders, and creates permanently-availabl

resources. Whether a farmer learns best by reading guides, interacting with others, taking an online 

class, or receiving direct support from a teacher, this program will meet their needs. All of the Advisory 

Committee members and Outreach Partners have direct experience with our basic farm law education 

program and will ensures this nationwide program will be effective for diverse communities.

Mississippi

Recipient: Oxford Community Market

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $146,181.08

Match Amount: $14,681.11

Total Project Amount: $160,862.19

Resilience in Community: A Sustainable Plan for Local Food Systems Recovery & Growth After Crisis

The Oxford Community Market (OXCM) is a 501(c)3 organization committed to improving access to 

locally/regionally produced food in Oxford, Lafayette County, Mississippi. Centrally located in north 

Mississippi, OXCM serves as an important hub for local/regional food system activity. In Jan. 2020, 

OXCM successfully transitioned from a 36-week market season to a 50-week market season, establishin

the first year-round market in north Mississippi. While meeting our goal of safely remaining operational

throughout the crisis, OXCM, like many small nonprofits, and our farming community face many 

challenges. The lingering impacts of the crisis now threaten the gains we’ve made in our local food 

system over the past three years. We propose to expand our capacity to serve producers and consumers 

by implementing the following plan: Resilience in Community: A Sustainable Plan for Local Food Systems 

Recovery & Growth After Crisis. Our plan addresses the needs of the organization, producers and 

consumers through the following objectives: Expanding organizational capacity with enhanced critical 

infrastructure & professional development; Developing vendor capacity for expanded processing and 

increased marketing through educational opportunities and technical support; Increasing consumer 

demand through expanded educational outreach/targeted marketing. FMPP support will empower 

OXCM to do the following: Maintain a robust, stable year-round market; Use technology to expand

direct-to-consumer marketing opportunities to attract/retain north Mississippi producers; Improv

access to local food for all residents, including underserved communities such as SNAP/WIC recipients.

Recipient: The Piney Woods Country Life School

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $418,054.56

Match Amount: $147,091.00

Total Project Amount: $565,145.56
The Piney Woods Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) Program

The Piney Woods School (PWS), the oldest black boarding school in the U.S., has a long history of 

farming and agriculture dating back to its formation in 1909. The grant funds will enable the school to 

build capacity through a distribution and marketing model to develop a Community Supported 

Agriculture farm (CSA). The PWS CSA, conveniently located between rural Rankin and Simpson counties 

in central Mississippi, will offer year-round produce shares and farm stand. A CSA will allow PWS to

efficiently disburse fresh produce to a more extensive customer base and reduce waste. Collaborations 

will be formed with local and historically underserved farmers to increase and diversify inventory.

Also, the PWS CSA is unique from other community farms. Our 200-acre Demonstration Farm is a living

science laboratory. We have an intense focus on STEM-based learning in a work-study environment

Over eighty (80) 8th through 12th-grade students will aid in overseeing the day-to- day operations of t

CSA and farm stand. From planting, harvesting, and selling – the PWS students will be involved in the 

entire process. As beginning farmers, students learn essential skills like strategic planning, budgeting, 

marketing, and entrepreneurship, as well as farm sustainability, production, food safety, and 

distribution, All CSA proceeds will directly benefit the farm’s operations (i.e., paid student internships, 

supplies, equipment, value-added production, and technology) and revenue for the contributing local

producers. PWS will offer affordable and competitive prices on shares for seasonal produce and 

individual food products.

North Carolina

Recipient: Transplanting Traditions Community Farm Inc

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $478,132.00

Match Amount: $188,836.00

Total Project Amount: $666,968.00

Establishing a Regional Producer Network of Asian Refugee Farmers with Culturally and Linguistically 

Appropriate Marketing Resources to Increase Farm Income and Local Food Production and

Distribution

The Transplanting Traditions Community Farm (TTCF) is a non-profit organization in the Piedmont region

of North Carolina that offers a farm incubator and robust agricultural production, business and 

marketing programs serving 100% limited resource and socially disadvantaged refugee farmers from 

Burma. Refugee farmers bring immeasurable farming skills and strong work ethic, and offer a chance to 

address some of the aging farmer and consolidated farming challenges in the US, but refugee farmers 

face a host of challenges to success, including language, cultural and literacy barriers, which limit their 

access to specific customers and markets. In order to address these issues, TTCF will diversify and 

expand refugee marketing opportunities and expand its existing aggregated customer management and 

food distribution services through the formation of the Transplanting Traditions Producer Hub (TTPH).

TTPH will provide specialized services needed to improve business efficiency, and increase marketing 

opportunities that will support business growth and aggregate customer management and local food 

distribution to the growing network of refugee farmers throughout North Carolina. Through trainings 

and technical assistance this project expects to increase refugee farmers’ skills and capacity around 

marketing barriers such as crop succession planning and food safety risk analysis; expand refugee farmer 

production and sales to new markets including CSA, online sales, farmers markets, wholesale, and more; 
increase access to fresh locally-grown, culturally appropriate food to low-income refugee and Asia

communities throughout the Piedmont region; and build a hub that supports continued business 

development and success for a Refugee Farmer Producer Network (RPN) in NC.

Recipient: The Good Stuff

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $280,075.00

Match Amount: $130,572.00

Total Project Amount: $410,647.00

Re-Rooting Post Pandemic Displacement: Capacity Building at Cobblestone Farmers Market

“Re-Rooting Post Pandemic Displacement: Capacity Building at Cobblestone Farmers Market” will

significantly increase market capacity through a one-time Covid-related infusion of funds for marke

promotion and long term strategic planning. Founded in 2012, Cobblestone is the largest year-round

producer-only farmers market in Forsyth County, NC with 50 vendors. Due to Covid-19 closures in 2020

Cobblestone moved mid-season to a temporary location where it has weathered the impacts of Covi

19 with a destabilizing 30% of its average customer attendance and a resulting imbalance of increased 

market expenses with reduced revenue from vendor fees. The purpose of the project is to re-grow

customer awareness through a robust marketing campaign and to develop a post-Covid resilient

farmers’ market in a permanent location with a comprehensive and inclusive strategic plan. The project 

goals include targeted advertising to attract new customers, an inviting Market Activity Area for demos 

and seasonal events, new vendor recruitment of new and beginning, and socially disadvantaged farmers 

to build a more inclusive vendor base; and strategic planning with our stakeholders and consultants. The 

project will result in higher customer awareness and attendance; more vendors, including new and 

beginning, and socially disadvantaged farmers; higher annual vendor gross sales; and a long term 

strategic plan.

Recipient: Lexington Farmer's Market Inc.

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $360,112.00

Match Amount: $148,912.00

Total Project Amount: $509,024.00

Expanding Farmers Market Retail Opportunities Year-Round

Davidson County, North Carolina was historically a rural agricultural county with textile and furniture 

manufacturing centered in its two small cities, Lexington and Thomasville. That manufacturing has 

largely disappeared over the last two generations. Now, our remaining agricultural community is under 

pressure from “bedroom community” housing development and e‐commerce fulfillment warehouse 

development to serve the much‐larger communities of Winston‐Salem and Greensboro (30 minutes to 

the north) and Charlotte / Mecklenburg County (60 minutes to south). Therefore, growing retail outlets 

for local farmers and more consistently marketing the benefits of local food production is essential to 

our ag community’s success and survival. Davidson County currently has two producer‐only farmers 

markets operating Saturday mornings May through October: the Lexington Farmers Market and the 

Thomasville Farmers Market. These two markets together will create a third joint Winter Farmers 

Market to provide year‐round retail opportunities to farmers and customers. We will also add mid‐week 

and evening retail pop‐up markets during the peak May ‐ October season. Our challenging but entirely 
achievable goal is to double the total number of market days available to local farmers in three years. 

This will create year‐round access to fresh, local foods by SNAP EBT recipients, and will encourage more 

season extension and value‐added product development by local farmers. With many partnerships to 

host these expanded markets and a re‐energized multimedia marketing campaign, we can educate a 

newer, more diverse audience about the benefits of local foods and how to prepare them through 

numerous cooking demonstrations.

Recipient: Rural Advancement Foundation International

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $175,288.00

Match Amount: $17,528.00

Total Project Amount: $192,816.00

Developing Direct-to-Consumer Food Access between Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Rural Faith 

Communities

North Carolina has at least 349 food deserts across 80 counties, impacting over 1.5 million residents. 

Along with issues of food insecurity in rural NC communities, many socially disadvantaged farmers 

struggle because of limited access to markets, beneficial relationships, and financial resources. This 

results in higher rates of debt and lower rates of agricultural land ownership rates than white farmers. 

To address these issues, RAFI-USA’s Farm and Faith Partnership Project (FFPP) connects North Carolina

churches with small-scale farmers from our Farmers of Color Network to create sustainable food-base

partnerships, specifically community supported agriculture (CSA) projects. Faith communities are found 

in nearly every rural community, serving as places of community support. For rural faith communities 

these partnerships increase food security and improve access to fresh, healthy foods for consistently 

vulnerable populations. For farmers of color, these partnerships create additional sources of income, 

build capacity, and increase their access to new local markets. Building on the success of our first FFPP 

CSA project, we will develop similar direct producer-to-consumer markets in eight North Carolin

communities over the next two years. This project prioritizes the most distressed counties. Our intention 

is that each CSA is a self-sustaining partnership that continues expanding the number of farmers and

churches involved. This model is replicable and serves to strengthen local food systems.

Recipient: North Carolina State University

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $749,839.00

Match Amount: $191,658.00

Total Project Amount: $941,497.00

Expanding Direct-to-Consumer Marketing and Processing Capacity for Local Meat in Response to 

Covid-19

The goal of this project is to develop, coordinate, and expand bulk meat sales through an online direct 

marketing channel that will increase farmer profitability, streamline processing, and improve the 

accessibility, affordability, and availability of local, pasture‐raised meats for consumers. The COVID‐19 

pandemic put pressure on local meat supply chains, as fear of shortages in conventional meat caused 

increased consumer demand, processing bottlenecks, many producers with excess livestock. This project 

will adapt lessons learned from a 2020 online sales platform pilot launched in response to the pandemic‐

induced demand for local meat. This online marketplace connects farmers and consumers via traditional 
bulk sales (whole, half, quarter carcasses). Bulk sales provide a win:win:win for consumers, farmers and 

processors by offering a more affordable price per pound than by‐the‐cut sales, increasing farmer 

profitability by reducing marketing time, and increasing processor efficiency and capacity. We plan to 

expand upon the pilot by developing a variety of consumer‐friendly, bulk meat products called “bulk 

bundles,” assembled packages of assorted cuts and value‐added products, in addition to a suite of 

critical platform improvements to expand reach and sales. At the same time, we will provide 

comprehensive supply chain support, including a promotional campaign, trainings, and outreach 

toolkits. Our goal is to provide producers (especially beginning and historically underserved), processors, 

and Extension agents the marketing and pricing know‐how they need to help the local meat sector in 

North Carolina leverage increased demand into sustainable post‐pandemic growth, while also building 

the infrastructure to better respond to future disruptions.

Recipient: Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $741,995.00

Match Amount: $187,796.57

Total Project Amount: $929,791.57

Building Recovery and Resilience of Southern Appalachian Farms through Direct Sales

The goals of Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP)’s proposed project, Building Recovery 

and Resilience of Southern Appalachian Farms through Direct Sales, are to support Southern 

Appalachian farmers as they recover from the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and to support them t

establish long-term business resilience. Farmers will build on lessons from farm successes, implement

direct sales and market diversification strategies, and grow the local economy. The geographic focus of 

activities will bolster a regional collaboration network that encompasses Western North Carolina (WNC), 

Eastern Tennessee (ET), and Upstate South Carolina (SC). The project will connect and develop the 

Southern Appalachian regional food economy by providing training and technical support, developing 

market outlets and opportunities for buyer connections, regional branding, building capacity of farmers 

markets, and creating opportunities for increasing local food awareness and consumption. Farm 

capacity will be strengthened through network sharing, direct to consumer marketing, and the 

implementation of new business opportunities and marketing strategies. 800 farmers will benefit, 

including new and beginning, limited resource, and women farmers. Direct sales will increase 30 percent 

from this project. 425 direct market outlets (farmers markets, CSAs, agritourism, roadside stands) and 

440 local wholesale outlets (restaurants, groceries, institutions) will also benefit. This project directly 

supports LAMP’s goals for connecting regional food economies, strengthening capacity and regional 

food system development through community collaboration, and improving income and economic 

opportunities for producers.
New Hampshire

Recipient: Yankee Fishermen's Cooperative

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $540,753.40

Match Amount: $232,000.00

Total Project Amount: $772,753.40

Keeping our Regional Working Waterfronts Afloat: The Development of a New England Young 

Fishermen’s Alliance

The commercial fishing sector is an important part of New England’s (NE) food system and gives social 

and cultural identity to coastal communities. However, participation in fisheries is declining. The NE 

groundfish workforce average age is over 60 years old. This creates an urgent need to identify, connect, 

and train young fishermen (defined as 45 and under) to address the “graying of the fleet”. The lack of a 

typical succession model in commercial fishing coupled with drastic catch limit reductions from 2009

2012 reduced the NH ground fishing fleet from almost 100 boats to eight active boats. To prevent this 

livelihood from extinction and to keep our heritage-based working waterfronts producing seafood to

supply the increased consumer demand, the younger generation of fishermen need access to training 

and mentorship. Yankee Fishermen’s Cooperative in partnership with NH Community Seafood will 

address this critical issue by: (1) Expanding regional seafood access by developing a regional NE Young 

Fisherman’s Alliance (NEYFA) ; (2) Increasing the viability of fishing business that serve local markets by 

providing necessary industry training including group marketing and sales, business planning education, 

regulatory and industry standards for increased sales , and mentorship matching.; (3) Increasing sales 

markets and access to fresh local seafood by facilitating connections and forming partnerships between 

young fishermen and regional food hubs; and (4) Improving income, job opportunities, and economic 

opportunities for NE’s fishing industry. This project will also connect local seafood, a valuable protein, to 

regions identified by USDA ERS Low-Income Low Access Map through the NE food hub networks

New Jersey

Recipient: City Green

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $499,029.00

Match Amount: $166,342.00

Total Project Amount: $665,371.00

Expanding Garden State Good Food Network

City Green successfully stewarded a three year FMPP grant in 2017-2020 to launch a statewide

marketing initiative for the Garden State Good Food Network (GSGFN) and expand City Green Veggie 

Mobile operations, reaching high risk neighborhoods with low access to affordable farm fresh produce. 

We seek renewed funding to expand the initiative by 1) continuing GSGF marketing and growing the 

network to 59 market sites; 2) doubling the penetration of the successful Veggie Mobile operation with 

a second truck; and 3) launching a statewide Farmers’ Collaborative, connecting NJ’s farmers with 

underserved communities. The GSGFN is NJ’s consortium of nutrition incentive programs (NIPs), 
currently operating at 35 NJ farmers’ market, farm stand, and CSA locations, coordinated by City Green. 

The program brings greater economic opportunities to farmers and improves fresh food access for low

income consumers. Enhanced marketing and promotion will drive more SNAP shoppers to NJ’s farmers’ 

markets. The City Green Veggie Mobile is a refrigerated mobile market that operates the NIP and visits 

locations with limited access to affordable fresh food, serving 3,000 customers/year. We will double its 

reach over the next 3 years to 4 counties and 12 municipalities, creating access and supporting farmers 

through local sourcing. The Farmers’ Collaborative is a program enhancement that will gather 30 

farmers and connect them with marketing support, training, and SNAP/NIP resources. City Green’s 

GSGFN, Veggie Mobile, and Farmers’ Collaborative will build bridges between producers, nutrition 

assistance programs, and consumers. Dedicated promotional efforts will grow the engine of direct 

producer-to-consumer healthy foo

New York

Recipient: Mid-Hudson Children's Museu

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $472,500.00

Match Amount: $52,650.00

Total Project Amount: $525,150.00

Expansion of the Poughkeepsie Waterfront Market

The Mid-Hudson Children’s Museum (MHCM) opened the Poughkeepsie Waterfront Market in 2017 in

response to significant food insecurity in the City of Poughkeepsie. In doing so, it created a direct 

connection between local farmers and urban consumers and became the first children’s museum in the 

nation to launch a farmers market as a strategy to advance food access and community health.The focus 

of the Market is locally produced food. The Market operates on Monday afternoons in the waterfront

pavilion of MHCM, which is centrally located within a residential area of Poughkeepsie marked by high 

poverty and without a grocery store. To ensure affordability of food for low-income households, the

Market accepts SNAP, WIC, and Double Up Food Bucks New York benefits (new in 2021).The focus of the 

Market is locally produced food. The Market operates on Monday afternoons in the waterfront pavilion 

of MHCM, which is centrally located within a residential area of Poughkeepsie marked by high poverty 

and without a grocery store. To ensure affordability of food for low-income households, the Market

accepts SNAP, WIC, and Double Up Food Bucks New York benefits (new in 2021).The COVID-19

pandemic highlighted the instability of Poughkeepsie’s already fragile food system. In response to the 

public health crisis, MHCM opened its farmers market one month early, in the height of the pandemic, 

and extended its 2020 season by an additional month in order to provide City residents with fresh, 

healthy food. During this same year, MHCM launched a major planning initiative to study how the 

Market could more contribute to stabilizing the local food system. With support from a FMPP planning 

grant, MHCM completed master planning activities that helped to lay the groundwork for a current 

capital project that is developing a “food experience center” to house an expanded year-round farmers

market and new education center. This request supports the operational aspects of the Market’s 

expansion.

Recipient: Harvest Home Farmer's Market Inc.

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $500,000.00
Match Amount: $125,000.00

Total Project Amount: $625,000.00

Farm-to-City: Improving Health Outcomes for All New Yorkers

Through the Harvest Home Farm-to-City program, we seek to achieve our mission to increase access t

affordable and healthy food in underserved communities by building long-term organizational capacity,

thereby ensuring the sustainability and growth of our direct producer-to-consumer farmer’s markets i

New York City. Over time, it has become increasingly difficult for farmers to justify the high cost of 

bringing their produce into the City. Without these producers—most of whom operate small family

owned farms and orchards throughout New York State—we would be unable to continue serving the 

tens of thousands of low-income families and seniors who count on us to provide affordable and healthy

alternatives to the pre-packaged, over-processed, and fast-food options that dominate in the

communities. Through the proposed Farm-to-City program, we seek to recruit and retain regiona

farmers by providing them with subsidies that would offset the added costs of transportation and labor 

associated with bringing their produce into New York City, thereby allowing us to achieve these goals 

and outcomes: Provide financial assistance to farmers who have suffered tremendous financial losses 

during the Covid pandemic and are still struggling to stay afloat, and make it economically feasible for 

them to sell at our markets over the long term; Improve health outcomes for low-income families and

seniors living in “food desert” communities through continued and reliable access to affordable, healthy, 

and nutritious food.

Recipient: The Research Foundation of SUNY on behalf University at Buffalo

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $750,000.00

Match Amount: $190,521.00

Total Project Amount: $940,521.00

Expansion of the Veggie Van Training Center and Mobile Market Coalition

Mobile markets are like farmers’ markets on wheels that address food access disparities by selling 

affordable local produce in convenient locations across communities facing food apartheid. While 92% 

of mobile markets are farmer‐run or source food locally, they are unique from farmers’ markets, farm 

stands and CSAs in their central focus on engagement of lower‐income and underserved communities. 

This mission‐driven work presents unique challenges in relation to both operations and sustainability. 

The Veggie Van Training Center (VVTC) at the University at Buffalo was designed to help mobile markets 

become more effective and sustainable through training on evidence‐based practices. In addition, the 

VVTC, together with mobile market practitioners across the country, has founded the Mobile Market 

Coalition (MMC) to encourage networking and support of mobile market operators. This project will 

improve the reach and effectiveness of the VVTC and MMC by meeting the following objectives: 1.) 

Create and execute a strategic plan and charter for the MMC to connect and support mobile market 

operators, establish standards of operation, and promote best practices; 2.) Expand the VVTC to provide 

training and technical assistance for new and established mobile markets through the Veggie Van 

Toolkit, Mobile Market Summit, mentoring program, webinars and/or connection with other training 

resources; and 3.) Create regional mobile market networks to facilitate operator training, resource 

sharing, and local food procurement. Together these objectives will help expand access to locally grown 

and produced foods in underserved communities and connect producers with new markets.
Recipient: Providence Farm Collective Corp.

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $477,712.95

Match Amount: $47,771.30

Total Project Amount: $525,484.25

Improving Production and Access to Fresh, Culturally Significant Food for Immigrant, Refugee and 

Black Families in Western New York

Providence Farm Collective’s (PFC) Improving Equitable Access to Fresh, Culturally Significant Food for 

Immigrant, Refugee and Black Families in Western New York project will address the need of 

marginalized and low-resource farmers of color to access marketing opportunities and generate

economically viable sales outlets that serve their food insecure communities via aggregation and direct 

retail. Specifically, PFC will 1) build organizational capacity by hiring a Markets Manager to a) scale PFC’s 

produce aggregation for food banks and non-profit organizations directly serving low-income, foo

insecure communities and b) expand direct-to-consumer sales opportunities for PFC farmers b

establishing a retail market for PFC’s eight distinct communities in the City of Buffalo with support from 

the Westminster Economic Development Initiative (WEDI); 2) support PFC farmers in marketing and

selling their niche, traditional crops, including but not limited to African maize, amaranth, roselle, hot 

peppers, African and Asian eggplants, to enhance farmer profitability Through the program, PFC’s 

immigrant, refugee and Black farmers will be assisted in promoting and conducting sales of their locally 

produced, culturally significant produce to historically under-resourced communities in Western New

York through training and technical assistance. By utilizing a “learn, do, teach” approach, the soft and 

managerial skills needed to successfully market produce directly will become self-sustaining in the

future as knowledge takes root and is propagated from farmer to farmer. Through this program, farmers 

will be trained to be trainers in the marketing and selling of niche, local, culturally-relevant crops. This

collaborative project will support a more robust, diverse food system that promotes health and equity 

by improving food and nutrition quality, increasing access to healthy and affordable foods, increasing 

access to culturally relevant foods, and supporting BIPOC farmers in serving local “low income/low 

access” communities. Furthermore, important cultural traditions linked to farming and food, such as 

Kulimbula (the Somali Bantu African Maize Harvest Festival) will be preserved.

Recipient: New Lebanon Farmers Market LLC

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $499,725.00

Match Amount: $143,763.00

Total Project Amount: $643,488.00

Pioneering Dramatically Expanded Farmers Markets by Operating Year-Round and Multiple Days per 

Week with Indoor and Online Shopping with Pickups and Deliveries and Additional Services

The New Lebanon Farmers Market had been operating seasonally for a decade when, in the shadow of 

COVID-19, we launched a virtual farmers market in August 2020 with the purpose of increasing access to

and sales of local foods. The community’s reception has been incredible, as evidenced by gross 

annualized revenues exceeding $150,000. This three-year capacity building project will expand and

improve our successful direct producer-to-consumer virtual farmers market, using our stron

relationships with local consumers, restaurants, and food producers. This project has five objectives: (1) 

Increase access to and sales of locally produced food among local consumers, especially underserved 
consumers, by improving our consumer-facing purchasing experiences; (2) Increase access to and sales

of locally produced food among local consumers, especially underserved consumers, by creating

public-private partnerships with local schools; (3) Expand and improve our local mid-tier value chain b

collaboratively developing and executing marketing, fulfillment, and distribution services aimed at local 

restaurants and businesses; (4) Expand and improve our local mid-tier value chain by collaboratively

developing and executing transportation, season extension, and market insights services for local

producers; and (5) Create new economic opportunities, income, jobs, and careers for local food 

producers. We are focused on two specific outcomes. First, this project will provide an estimated 17,500 

individual consumers, including 7,000 low-access consumers and low-income+low-access consumer

with convenient access to nutritious, locally produced foods. Second, this project will also generate 

more than $1 million dollars of new sales of foods sourced from 150 local food producers and create 

jobs.

Ohio

Recipient: Northside Farmers Market

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $142,994.88

Match Amount: $56,332.90

Total Project Amount: $199,327.78

Creating a Stronger Food System In Urban Cincinnati Through Increased Vendor Support, Enhanced 

Visibility, and Greater Market Stability

Northside Farmers Market (NFM) serves Northside and its surrounding communities that are Priority 

Areas. The pandemic highlighted the need for the market and its food access programs with 50% 

increased sales. The market remained agile by revising safety protocols to keep our customers and 

vendors safe; however, it also meant we were unable to keep some existing vendors and bring in new 

vendors because of social distancing requirements. This project seeks to make NFM a place for 

customers to find healthful and affordable food and for vendors to thrive. The objectives of this 

proposal are to: 1) Increase food access through intensified outreach and marketing; 2) Support new 

and existing farmers and food producers through incentives, training, and mentoring; and 3) Build 

NFM’s capacity to sustain long-term growth. To increase food access for all customers, including those

on SNAP, WIC, Ohio Senior Farmers Market Nutrition, and Produce Perks tokens and program coupons. 

NFM will raise its public profile by: creating a marketing campaign, hiring a marketing assistant, and 

collaborating with area partners and our local food guide to maximize exposure. To support NFM’s long

term growth, a study of the market and area community will be completed. NFM will increase 

interaction with local and regional organizations. To support vendors, including farmers/ ranchers, NFM 

will complete booth assessments, recruit new vendors, provide training and resources, and retain 

vendors through a mentorship program. Our expected outcomes will be 1) more customers coming to 

market on a regular basis; 2) stronger connections with our area partners; 3) higher sales for our 

vendors; 4) more vendors at market.

Recipient: North Union Farmers Market

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $265,925.62

Match Amount: $67,627.00
Total Project Amount: $333,552.62

Time to Grow: Expanding Farmer Access to Technical Training and Capacity Building in Northeast Ohio

The project will support Northeast Ohio's farmers by strengthening their business planning, climate

resilient land-use practices, and technical capacity to develop a more accessible local food system. From

unprecedented flooding in 2019, to an irregularly dry 2020  the 125 small farmers in the North Union

Farmers Market (North Union) network report a growing need for more access to tailored technical skills 

training and capacity building opportunities. This project will result in a farmer education pilot program 

Time to Grow  that will be free and open toOhio farmers across the region. Bringing together a range of

subject-matter experts- from Soil Scientists to business development specialists to innovative Ohi

farmers  farmers will deepen their technical skills, confidence, and capacity to respond to extreme

weather shifts, and by extension, stabilize regional local food access and ag economy. As Ohio's largest 

certified-producer only farmer markets, we know that reliable income is key to farmer innovation. To

ensure farmers have the economic safety net to experiment with new ag techniques and skills, we will 

launch promotional activities at three of our markets in the City of Cleveland to attract new customers 

and drive demand for locally grown food. At every stage of the planning process  our new Community

Outreach Manager will directly engage North Union farmers and customers to ensure relevant and 

engaging programmatic offerings. To widen the program's reach, all Time to Grow workshops will be 

recorded and shared on Youtube along with accompanying resources.

Recipient: Rural Action Inc

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $267,055.98

Match Amount: $53,643.80

Total Project Amount: $320,699.78

Growing the Shawnee Farmers Market - Networking, Peer Learning, and Technical Assistance 

Strategies to Expand Local Foods in a Destination Community

Rural Action’s project, “Growing the Shawnee Farmers Market  Networking, Peer Learning, and

Technical Assistance Strategies to Expand Local Foods in a Destination Community,” seeks to develop a 

promising farmers market in Appalachian Ohio to improve healthy food access and the local economy.

Shawnee Ohio is part of the Little Cities of Black Diamonds region of Athens, Hocking and Perry 

Counties. This region includes a group of historically important former coal towns that have worked to 

re-build their historic significance and architecture that dates back to the coal boom of the late 1800’s.

The Shawnee Farmers Market, held monthly in 2020 and 2021, and weekly in the 2010’s, is part of a 

destination and food access strategy to support re-development in the area. It is currently constrained

by the lack of a formal board, guidance policies, comprehensive marketing efforts, consumer purchasing 

access options, and a small pool of growers selling at the market. This project seeks to fill these gaps 

through establishing a board, creating a comprehensive marketing strategy, initiating a peer mentoring 

process with successful farmers markets, offering producer training, diversifying purchase options for 

consumers, and connecting Shawnee with the Appalachian Ohio local food system. Outcomes include 

increased vendor participation, creation of a fiduciary board, and producer and consumer access to 

training and educational opportunities. This will result in increased access to healthy food and economic 

opportunities for 5,834 people in Shawnee and surrounding rural communities.
Oregon

Recipient: Gorge Grown Food Network

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $109,212.00

Match Amount: $10,921.00

Total Project Amount: $120,133.00

Rural Farmers Market Network: Building Resilient Markets and Supporting Producers Beyond the 

Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic increased pressure on vulnerabilities and stress points within the regional food

system in the Columbia River Gorge and proved incredibly challenging for markets and producers alike. 

Many regional markets struggled to pivot into online sales, adjust staffing, and expand food access 

programs like SNAP Match. Producers engaged in direct-to-consumer sales, especially new an

beginning producers, had difficulty utilizing new technology to facilitate no-contact sales while also

facing decreased sales to wholesale accounts. Project partners are well positioned to leverage the 

established Rural Farmers Market Network to deliver training, technical assistance, and support to 

increase the sustainability and resiliency and ensure a fair, equitable, and sustainable COVID response 

and recovery for regional food producers and direct producer-to-consumer markets. To support thi

response, Gorge Grown Food Network and project partners will 1.) provide training and technical 

assistance to 10 member markets of the Rural Farmers Market Network, 2.) increase recruitment, 

outreach, and support of new, beginning, socially disadvantaged farmers through training and staffing 

focused on technology support, online marketing, bookkeeping, and booth display, 3.) increase local 

food sales by expanding a local food marketing campaign around renewed interest in regional resilience.

The efforts of this project will result in expansion of regional farmers markets as direct-to-consume

market spaces, increase knowledge and sales for producers engaged in these markets, and improve 

access to locally produced products for our region’s most vulnerable consumers.

Recipient: Oregon Farmers Markets Association

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $546,385.25

Match Amount: $153,902.41

Total Project Amount: $700,287.66

Oregon Farmers Market Learning Network (FMLN): Supporting Oregon's Farmers Markets in 

Recovering from the Impacts of COVID-19 and Wildfire Emergencies

Oregon’s abundant farmland has the capacity to support over 220 different crops, a growing market of 

residents and tourists and a normally vibrant statewide farmers market sector. In 2019, there were 127 

farmers markets in Oregon, supporting over 6,700 vendor businesses, hosting 4.2M visitors per year and 

an estimated $63M in sales. Unfortunately, these markets were hit hard by the impacts of COVID-19 and

additional wildfire-related emergencies. Total sales, customer visitation, market capacity and vendor

participation all decreased drastically in 2020. Due to the high turnover rate at farmers markets during 

this time (33% of staff and 44% of board members), many markets lack the experience to rebuild 

without help. The Oregon Farmers Market Learning Network will address these challenges by creating a 

statewide community of practice of at least 90 farmers markets, committed to a 3-yr. program of
regularly occurring learning opportunities, based on peer-led knowledge exchange and expert technical

assistance in four high-need training areas identified by Oregon’s farmers market community:

organizational development, branding and marketing, new and beginning vendor support, and diversity, 

equity and inclusion. Ten of these markets will also constitute a research cohort within the larger group 

to measure program impact. OFMA will use the knowledge gleaned from these activities to create a 

digital toolkit focused on the high-need training topics. There is significant buy-in for this program

which will provide markets with the expertise and resources they need to improve in four key indicator 

areas: market stability, vendor participation, customer counts, and vendor sales.

Recipient: Friends of Zenger Farm

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $404,305.00

Match Amount: $184,320.00

Total Project Amount: $588,625.00

Building Equitable Local Food Systems: A Beginning BIPOC Farmer Apprenticeship and Market 

Providing Technical Assistance for Direct-producer-to-consumer Market Education

While Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) producers have significant agricultural production 

experience, they often encounter barriers to establishing financially viable farm businesses. This 

project’s goal is to expand direct-to-consumer market activity by training the next generation of direc

market farmers based in the Portland Metropolitan area. Zenger Farm will provide a Beginning Farmer 

program to train emerging farmers while the Come Thru Market will give emerging business vendors 

(including Zenger Farm beginning farmers) an opportunity to test their business model in a low-risk

market environment by lending vendor supplies and market equipment as well as subsidizing market 

access fees. This supports BIPOC producers in becoming market-ready and in achieving short-ter

successes that put them on a trajectory to eventually scale their businesses into larger markets, 

including farm to school and other institutional outlets, while improving business sustainability and 

increasing revenue to support new job creation. Working together we will align curriculum to create a 

comprehensive culturally responsive learning environment and market to increase the direct-t

consumer market development pipeline for over 60 beginning BIPOC farmers over three years, as well 

as an additional 5,000 estimated project beneficiaries including beginning farmers, BIPOC producers, 

BIPOC foodmakers and vendors, market customers, and related food systems organizations and 

businesses. Providing culturally responsive farmers markets strengthens BIPOC communities, improves 

health outcomes, and increases cultural sustainability.

Recipient: Good Meat Project

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $496,712.00

Match Amount: $124,179.00

Total Project Amount: $620,891.00

Good Meat Project: Expanding Direct-to-Consumer Markets for Meat Producers Through Marketing 

Assistance and Training

Despite an estimated 30-50% surge in local food purchasing in the past year, meat producers selling

locally via direct-to-consumer markets report they lack the marketing skills, materials, and trainin

necessary to attract and retain customers and grow their businesses. The Good Meat Project: Expanding 
Direct-to-Consumer Markets for Meat Producers Through Marketing Assistance and Training wil

improve producers’ overall marketing capacity by professionally designing shareable marketing 

materials and by executing technical trainings about digital/in-person marketing strategies and

technologies, messaging and sales tactics, price setting, and customer-focused communications. A

collaboration between the Good Meat Project and five producer-led Collaborator Organizations in five

states (Oregon, Wisconsin, Iowa, New York, New Mexico), this project will 1) work with 300 Participating 

Producers selling direct-to-consumer beef, pork, chicken, lamb and/or goat to identify regionally-specif

marketing needs, 2) build a shared resource base of professionally designed marketing materials such as 

guides to bulk-buying meat, social media kits, and cooking videos, that producers can use to educate

and attract customers, and 3) execute 10 technical marketing trainings within each Collaborator 

Organization’s producer network. By grant end, 3,757 local meat producers will receive professional 

marketing training, our Participating Producer’s customer base will grow by 20%, and the resulting 

materials and trainings will be disseminated to an additional 4,000 producers in other regions through a 

collaborative, purpose-built online marketing portal. By helping producers increase their marketing

capacity, this project will bring them stronger recognition in local market channels and more resilient 

business strategies for sustained growth.

Pennsylvania

Recipient: The Pennsylvania State University

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $254,388.00

Match Amount: $63,597.00

Total Project Amount: $317,985.00

Building Dynamic Marketplaces & Stronger Networks for Pennsylvania's Direct to Consumer Outlets

The Building Dynamic Marketplaces & Stronger Networks for Pennsylvania's Direct to Consumer Outlets 

project addresses the shifting marketing landscape in Pennsylvania toward increasing numbers of 

agricultural producers selling their products direct to consumers. The project will provide the skills, 

knowledge, and resources needed to succeed in today’s dynamic marketplaces. The Penn State 

Extension Food Systems & Local Foods team will provide educational programming, direct technical 

assistance, and peer‐to‐peer networking and learning opportunities for farmers markets and retail farm 

market owners and staff. The project will support and promote direct producer‐to‐consumer marketing, 

develop marketing strategies for producers of local food and value‐added products, and help businesses 

respond to changing technology needs. Through a variety of learning formats, including two widely 

accessible communities of practice (peer networks)—one for Pennsylvania farmers markets and the 

other for PA retail farm markets—this project will provide producers with direct‐to‐consumer sales 

channels tools and information to expand their customer bases; increase customer retention; increase 

sales of locally produced agricultural products; and respond quickly and efficiently to marketplace 

challenges and demands.
Rhode Island

Recipient: African Alliance of Rhode island

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $305,454.00

Match Amount: $40,430.75

Total Project Amount: $345,884.75

Expanding Access to Fresh Food and Farmers Markets in Providence's Marginalized Neighborhoods

The African Alliance of Rhode Island (AARI) will carry out a 3-year Farmers Market Promotion capacity

building project that will improve agency operations and expansion of its farmers markets that serve 

low-food access neighborhoods in the City of Providence, RI. AARI famers markets sell local, organically

and sustainably grown specialty ethnic vegetables and value-added products to residents in low-foo

access areas where few or no other farmers markets operate. Current market vendors are 15 African 

refugee women who raise crops at AARI farm in Johnston, RI. The project will add 2 new markets to 

AARI’s existing markets in low-food access areas, which will expand coverage, serve more consumers

and provide additional opportunities for market vendors. The project will work to recruit and train 5 

new market vendors, including specialists who produce honey, flowers and herbs. The project will 

strengthen AARI organizational staffing and management; support market research and analysis to 

identify the best locations for new markets; provide local farmer/vendors and market managers with 

training and education on market operations; build up AARI agritourism by introducing a farmer’s 

market onsite at the AARI Farm that will feature seasonal agritourism activities and cultural events that 

will attract residents from other areas of the state; and set up an online sales option to assist consumers 

who prefer online shopping. The project will actively recruit and train new, beginning, and socially 

disadvantaged farmers and ranchers seeking opportunities to engage in local agriculture.

Recipient: Farm Fresh Rhode Island

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $538,397.00

Match Amount: $134,833.00

Total Project Amount: $673,230.00

Hooked on Fresh in the Ocean State: Expanding opportunities for farm and fish sales across Rhode 

Island

COVID-19 and its associated food supply disruptions quickly illuminated the need to support direct to

consumer sales strategies for Rhode Island farmers and fisherman. Although Rhode Island is the Ocean 

State and produces over six times the amount of seafood to meet local demand, only 5% of seafood 

landed at Rhode Island ports is consumed by local residents. In 2020, state agency partners amended 

regulations to allow fishermen to sell dockside and bypass traditional seafood distributors. The 

permitting changes were supported by local seafood advocates but there is now a need to 1) Deploy 

tools, training, and technical assistance for local fishermen to gain access to retail outlets, 2) Provide 

trainings to local farmers market managers on food safety to guarantee their ability to host seafood 

vendors and increase access to local seafood and 3) Ensure that local residents are aware of 

opportunities where they can be accessing seafood and farm products. This project will launch a 

statewide marketing and outreach campaign to promote local seafood and farm producers across Rhode 
Island, while also providing training and technical assistance for farmers and fishermen to expand their 

existing businesses to make sales at farmers markets, Community Supported Agricultures and 

Community Supported Fisheries (CSA/CSFs) and dockside outlets. Expected outcomes of this proposal 

will be an increase in farm and seafood sales by fishermen and community growers vending at direct to 

consumer outlets, as well as a growth in the consumer base for locally grown and harvested farm and 

seafood products.

South Carolina

Recipient: Brookland Center for Community Economic Change

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $249,480.00

Match Amount: $71,176.00

Total Project Amount: $320,656.00

BCCEC Growing Capacity & Strength Through Local Food Channels (BCCEC-GCSLFC)

The Brookland Center for Community Economic Change (BCCEC) is located in the former 

Lakeview/Northside School facility in West Columbia, South Carolina. The BCCEC’s Growing Capacity & 

Strength through Local Food Channels Program (BCCEC-GCSLFC) will utilize our existing buildings of

84,000 square feet, including a gymnasium, football field, a commercial kitchen, food pantry, and 

cafeteria . BCCEC creates opportunities, improves educational outcomes, reduces health disparities, and 

creates a sustainable living environment for residents. Our GCSLFC was developed with community 

residents and partners after assessing the needs of our target population—low-income Africa

Americans, Hispanics, seniors, and at-risk youth. Our community-based food system will serve not onl

the immediate residents of West Columbia but those of Lexington and Richland Counties. We will 

increase assess to fresh local produce for residents; incorporate training/educational programs, and 

create jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities. We will draw on our partnership with the University of 

South Carolina and our SNAP program already in place. This partnership involves working with 

prioritized populations in West Columbia/Cayce to identify areas of concern including food deserts that 

have a lack of access to healthy food choices in low-income communities. GCSLFC will: 1) Transform our

underleveraged garden and football field to weekly farmers market and community gardens; 2) Develop 

our after-school and camp youth training program with a curriculum and annual program that offers

nutrition training, food service, growing practices, and entrepreneurial opportunities; and 3) Scale-up

our existing food distribution program and engage residents in distribution of produce creating 

educational, vocational, and economic opportunities for our communities.

Recipient: Sylvan Farm LLC

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $499,750.00

Match Amount: $124,750.00

Total Project Amount: $624,500.00

Sylvan Market-Growing Farmers Revenue while Providing Healthy Food Access in a Food Desert

Sylvan Farm LLC’s funding will support and strengthen a local farm market and improve the viability of 

those farmers utilizing the market. The purpose of this project is to provide a new and much needed 
direct-to-consumer sales avenue in the Saluda area of rural South Carolina for producers, and in s

doing increase sales of local South Carolina farmers’ products and improve local food access for 

residents and those passing through. Our overarching goal is to facilitate greater access to healthy, local 

food through a local farm market in an area that is a food desert. Through this project we will increase 

overall awareness of local farm products and producers, increase direct-to-consumer sales for loca

growers, and help improve local farm profitability. The project represents a collaborative engagement 

between multiple South Carolina farmers and food aggregators, actively working to improve direct-t

consumer availability of fresh, local foods through this market. Sylvan Market has formed partnerships 

with nearly 90 local farms who will be supported through this project, as well as GrowFood Carolina, a 

SC based food aggregator and distributor, and Happy Dirt, a North Carolina based organic farm and 

produce aggregator. The expected outcome of this project is to increase the sales and income for 

individual farmers through the market, increase the ability of low- income individuals to access and

purchase healthy, local foods directly from farmers, and to overall improve connections between SC 

farms and consumers.

Texas

Recipient: SENTLI: Center for Regenerative Agriculture

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $326,156.00

Match Amount: $81,539.00

Total Project Amount: $407,695.00

Reviving Hidalgo County’s food system by strengthening local farmers markets, expanding marketing 

outlets, and forging community partnerships

The proposed project will serve Hidalgo County TX, located along the Texas Mexico Border in the Rio 

Grande Valley. Hidalgo county is home to approximately 868,000 residents. A third of Hidalgo County 

residents live in poverty and close to 40% reside in food deserts. (US News, 2020; DataUSA 2021).

Hidalgo county is the State’s leading producer of fruits and vegetables, but most of the produce is 

shipped out of the county (Blueprints 2020, AgCensus 2017). The proposed project would open 2 new 

direct producer-to-consumer marketing opportunities for beginning and socially disadvantaged farme

in Hidalgo County, launch a marketing campaign to promote local produce, and increase access to local 

produce by offering home delivery and 3 CSA pick up sites to low income/low access residents in 

historically underserved communities. Expected outcomes are increased farmers sales, increased farmer 

knowledge of new technology, and increase consumer knowledge on preparation and benefits of local 

produce.

Recipient: Recipe for Success Foundation

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $299,987.00

Match Amount: $74,993.00

Total Project Amount: $374,980.00
Hope Farms Expands Diversity and Frequency of Farmers Markets in Food Deserts

Recipe for Success Foundation (RFS) was founded in 2005 to combat childhood obesity by changing the 

way children understand, appreciate, and eat their food and to educate and mobilize the community to 

provide them with healthier diets. RFS operates Hope Farms (http://HopeFarms HTX.org ) a seven‐acre 

working, urban farm located in the shadow of downtown Houston, where we grow affordable, fresh 

produce for Houston families, train new urban farmers, and provide a place for the entire community to 

learn about and celebrate fresh, locally‐grown food. The overarching goal of Hope Farms Expands 

Diversity and Frequency of Farmers Markets in Food Deserts is to expand our impact and reach from our 

original “First Saturday” farmers market concept in the historically Black Houston neighborhood of 

Sunnyside, a known food desert, which was attempted just prior to shutdown to a larger footprint of 

vendors and customers, further leveraged by offering participating vendors opportunity to provide Food 

From Friends in the regularly scheduled Rolling Green Pop Up Markets throughout the greater Houston 

area. (Please see previous plate for a map noting low‐income and low‐access areas).

Therefore, RFS seeks USDA FMPP funding to: 1) Hire a part‐time Program Manager and secure services 

of a PR firm who will together expand our partnership base, develop recruitment and promotional 

materials, build a coalition of urban micro-farmers and boutique food makers who collectively produce a

wide variety of complementary agricultural products, and design and deploy a cohesive advertising and 

promotional campaign to increase awareness of and participation in community-based fresh- food sale

and events; and 2) Expand the capacity of Hope Farms’ produce processing and packing station to 

simplify the process of incorporating recruited urban farmers’ products into Rolling Green market pop

ups, thereby increasing farmers’ reach and income opportunities.

Recipient: Plant It Forward

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $280,151.20

Match Amount: $100,100.00

Total Project Amount: $380,251.20

Scaling Food Hub Impact Serving BIPOC and New American Farmers in South, East, and Central Texas

The purpose of “Scaling Food Hub Impact Serving BIPOC and New American farmers in South, East, and 

Central Texas,” is to ensure the long‐term success of socially disadvantaged farmers by sustainably 

strengthening the capacity of the Plant It Forward (PIF) Food Hub. Its successful CSA program serves 

over 400 families per week; however, PIF’s current financial model requires supplemental non‐program 

income to sustain food hub activities. Reliance on non‐program income creates growth challenges for 

PIF, and more fundamentally, poses a long‐term risk to farm businesses relying upon PIF for sales 

opportunities. Additionally, the project addresses severe operational strains to PIF precipitated by the 

COVID‐19 pandemic. Key project objectives include the creation of a business plan which enables long‐

term financial self‐ sufficiency of the PIF Food Hub, and which assesses incorporation of a tiered‐pricing 

model into the CSA, as a novel solution to local food access disparities. The business plan informs a 

marketing strategy and multi‐year campaign that aims to increase local food consumption in the 

Houston region. These strategies result in expanded direct‐to‐consumer market opportunities for 

socially disadvantaged growers operating in South, East, and Central Texas. Short‐term outcomes 

include the creation of a business plan which enables PIF to close its food hub budget deficit within 5 

years (reaching 75% of baseline by Year 3), increasing the number of socially disadvantaged producers 

served by the PIF Food Hub from 13 to 25, and increasing total sales by ~48%, to $1,450,000 over a 3‐

year period.
Recipient: City of Texarkana

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $118,800.00

Match Amount: $29,700.00

Total Project Amount: $148,500.00

Texarkana, TX Pop Up Farmers' Market and Multimedia Marketing Program

This project is intended to increase the reach of the Texarkana Farmers Market. The first goal is to 

provide 3 Pop Up Markets annually to low-moderate Income neighborhoods. This would be a way to

minimize food waste from the vendors farms and eliminate travel limitations for those that do not have 

access to the Farmers’ Market. Second, plan to enhance marketing and familiarity with 

vendors/products through quarterly cooking demonstration videos. This would be a way to increase 

exposure to local food sources and the Texarkana Farmers Market. These videos will be posted to 

Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok using local celebrity farmers/chefs as hosts.

Finally, providing local food educational materials with print outs of nutritional information, recipes and 

how to pamphlets, and live cooking instructions. This goal will provide an alternative to the food kit 

industry, with companies such as HelloFresh and Blue Apron, and allow the same experience with local 

food. We also intend to host cooking live demonstration with local chefs using the same TXK Market 

Boxes that customers receive. This is also a way to connect farmers with local restaurant owners.

Recipient: Council for Healthy Food Systems

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $240,723.83

Match Amount: $60,300.00

Total Project Amount: $301,023.83

Building Capacity and Demand for Local Meat, Poultry, and Egg Sales in Texas Through Training, 

Technical Support, and Consumer Marketing

Direct marketing meat, poultry, and eggs poses specific challenges that are often unaddressed. Our 

project will conduct statewide training for current and aspiring direct market producers selling meat, 

poultry, and eggs, provide technical assistance to small, mid-sized, and historically underserved 

producers selling (or aspiring to sell) direct-to-consumer (DTC), and assist farmers and ranchers in 

the promotion of their products through a consumer marketing campaign and development of 

customizable marketing materials. Working with 12 collaborators, the Council for Healthy Food 

Systems (CHFS) will host a total of 15 two-day workshops on becoming market ready; to sell meat, 

poultry, and egg products direct to consumers, including labeling, cost-benefit analysis, regulatory 

issues, and farmers; and market booth techniques, training at least 300 producers and aspiring 

producers. Workshops will target historically underserved areas, with three of five locations in LI/LA 

communities. Following workshops, CHFS will host virtual meetings with participants to provide 

individualized technical assistance with roadblocks, also building a cohort of Texas producers who can 

exchange knowledge and skills. Finally, our consumer marketing campaign will reach an estimated 

20,000 producers and consumers beyond the direct training and technical assistance. Overall, the 

project will enhance producer knowledge of direct marketing meat, poultry, and eggs, increase DTC 

sales and market opportunities, engage new producers in direct sales, promote Texas animal products 

to consumers, and build a community of practitioners for long-term sustainability.
Recipient: Urban Harvest Inc.

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $298,677.00

Match Amount: $74,699.25

Total Project Amount: $373,376.25

Grow Resilience: A Coordinated Recovery Strategy to Increase the Competitiveness of the Local 

Agricultural Sector in Houston, Texas

Local farms and small food businesses have been hit especially hard by coronavirus and the recent 

Winter Storm “Uri,” which have disrupted the regional food supply chain and reduced economic 

opportunities for growers in Houston, Texas. Coronavirus has also exacerbated existing food insecurity –

disproportionately affecting low to moderate income households – while also introducing food 

insecurity to individuals who had never experienced barriers to reliable food options.

Since April 2020, Urban Harvest’s “Grow Resilience” strategy assists the recovery efforts of the 

agriculture sector and food insecure communities through resources, education, economic 

development, and healthy food to those who need it most. To provide further economic support to 

small local farmers, ranchers, and businesses while simultaneously empowering underserved individuals 

and families by connecting them with local farms and ranches to learn where their food comes from and 

build community around healthy food choices. Urban Harvest also supports a growing network of 

farmers markets and farm stands including Plant It Forward Farms, Finca Tres Robles, Lettuce Live Farm 

Stand, and other markets across the city. This proposal will extend the invitation to join all the activities 

within this project to a network of 21 farmers markets and farm stands across Houston.

With strategic partners such as The City of Houston Resilience Officer and recognized local food leaders, 

“Grow Resilience” will develop a set of measurable interventions aimed to increase competitiveness, 

collaboration, and diversity of our Saturday Farmers Market and Mobile Market. By expanding the 

overall customer base of these markets by 30%, onboarding 15 underserved and minority-owned farms,

and building capacity of all Double Up sites, Urban Harvest will also expand opportunities for low

income communities to access affordable, healthy, and local food choices.

Recipient: County of Dallas

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $157,145.00

Match Amount: $215,404.00

Total Project Amount: $372,549.00

South Oak Cliff Dallas Farmers Market Project: Expanding Economic Opportunity for Socially 

Disadvantaged Local Farmers and Improving Availability of Fresh Produce in a Dallas Food Desert

The South Oak Cliff Dallas Farmers Market Project is spearheaded by Dallas County Health and Human 

Services Chronic Disease Prevention in partnership with For Oak Cliff, GROW North Texas, Texas Small 

Farmers and Ranchers Community Based Organization, Oak Cliff Veggie Project and Good Local Markets. 

The goal is to establish a farmers’ market to provide economic opportunity for socially disadvantaged 

local farmers and improve access to fresh produce and nutritious food for disproportionately impacted 

communities in a food desert in the southern sector of Dallas. To this effect, the project will work with 

Texas Small Farmers and Ranchers Community Based Organization and other stakeholders to establish a 

local direct-to-consumer market  In addition, the project aims to create awareness and foste

involvement of community leaders and organizations to educate and engage participation from
community members. Further, this project will create vital job opportunities in the community by 

recruiting and hiring market management and staff to oversee and conduct market operations. The 

new farmers market will be established at For Oak Cliff, a non-profit community center located in a food

desert in the southern sector of Dallas County.

Vermont

Recipient: Vital Communities, Inc.

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $502,431.00

Match Amount: $58,553.00

Total Project Amount: $560,984.00

Climate Farmer Stories: Innovative Marketing for Resilient Upper Valley Farms

Climate Farmer Stories (CFS): Innovative Marketing for Resilient Upper Valley Farms will engage farmers 

in an intensive, personalized, marketing technical assistance (TA) program to increase direct market 

channel sales. Vital Communities, a nonprofit organization with 25+ years of experience working with 

farmers in the Upper Valley region of New Hampshire and Vermont, will assist farmers in developing 

strategic marketing tactics, provide funds to implement them, and generate marketing materials 

featuring compelling stories about the role their farm plays in climate adaptation and community 

resilience. Marketing collateral will include original farm portraits by local artists and audio/text stories 

about the cohort farms, creating a personalized and cohesive narrative about sustainable agriculture 

and why it matters. In addition to being used by the individual cohort farmers, the portraits will be 

employed in a regional advertising campaign and in a traveling exhibit, highlighting Upper Valley farms 

and their importance to climate mitigation, community resilience, and the economic vitality of the 

region.

Virginia

Recipient: Greene Commons Group

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $50,000.00

Match Amount: $12,500.00

Total Project Amount: $62,500.00

Expanding Retail Food Outlets for Farmers in Central Virginia and West of the Blue Ridge

Greene Commons Group in Stanardsville, Virginia is responding to the need for more retail opportunities 

for area farmers in the rural counties of Greene, Orange, Madison, Albemarle, and Rockingham by 

growing its farmers market from a local to regional level. The project will engage key community 

organizations to reach and attract new patrons, including residents and tourists of all ages, ethnicities, 

and income levels in order to develop a more robust customer base for the market. The growth of the 

Greene Farmers Market will also include offering training opportunities to producers and expanding the 

current 7-month season to a year-round market, thus encouraging farmers to use season extensio

tactics and incorporate value added products, giving them more opportunities for year-round income
At the same time, a targeted campaign will focus on recruiting new farmers and added-value producers

from Greene and surrounding counties to sell at the market, thereby increasing the diversity of products 

offered to a growing customer base. The growth of the farmers market also supports the revitalization 

of the small Town of Stanardsville by providing vitality and financial infrastructure to a challenged local 

economy. By building a sustainable and economically viable farmers market for an expanded region of 

rural counties, our business model will become a template for other farmers markets to follow.

Recipient: Project GROWS Inc.

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $354,000.00

Match Amount: $91,500.00

Total Project Amount: $445,500.00

Central Shenandoah FMPP: Meeting the Need, Connecting New and Growing Farms with Underserved 

Communities

The goal of this project is to expand direct-to-consumer markets in the Central Shenandoah Valley o

Virginia, with emphasis on expanding market access for small, beginning, and socially disadvantaged 

farmers and traditionally underserved and low income communities. To expand consumer access, we 

are focused on launching a new Mobile Market initiative to reach economically impoverished and 

transportation challenged neighborhoods, expanding our marketing and outreach efforts generally, 

marketing SNAP and WIC/Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) benefits specifically, and 

incorporating a Community Ambassadors initiative to reach nontraditional and multilingual 

communities. On the producer side, we will implement a Farmers Mentorship program for incoming 

vendors and partner with Virginia Cooperative Extension to assist with training for small and beginner 

farms. Founded in 2010, Project GROWS is a community-based nonprofit working at the intersection of

childhood wellness, food justice, and local food economies. Our broad community partnerships uniquely 

positions us to expand direct-to-consumer markets beyond those that historically serve high incom

consumers and large scale farmers. We currently operate three small traditional farmers markets with 

significant room to expand, as well as a small, single-site pilot Mobile Market initiative. These existing

programs and community infrastructures serve as a vital springboard for this initiative. Subtitled 

“Meeting the Need: Connecting New and Growing Farms with Underserved Communities,” this project 

aims to expand direct-to-consumer markets in ways that benefit traditionally underserved farmers an

consumers throughout our region.

Recipient: National Recreation and Park Association

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $750,000.00

Match Amount: $88,939.26

Total Project Amount: $838,939.26

Increasing Access to Farmers Markets through Local Parks and Recreation

Local park and recreation (P&R) agencies are optimal locations for farmers markets and other direct 

producer-to-consumer opportunities that advance local food systems. P&R agencies play an essentia

role in connecting under-resourced populations to fresh and healthy foods, as evidenced throughout the

COVID-19 pandemic. However, limited knowledge, resources, and capacity remain significant barriers to

operating and expanding successful market opportunities. Building off NRPA’s existing FMPP grant, a 
new FMPP project will provide outreach, training and technical assistance (T/TA), and resources to local 

P&R agencies and community-based organizations, Berea, KY; Kerman, CA; and Vivian, LA to increase

their ability to develop innovative strategies that expand farmers markets and other direct producer-t

consumer opportunities, with a focus on equity- centered strategies and COVID-19 response/recovery

NRPA will also facilitate a community of practice, develop key resources, and share best practices to 

advance farmers markets in P&R nationwide. Outcomes include: 1) Increased consumption of and 

access to locally and regionally produced agricultural products; 2) Increased number of farmers market 

customers and increased sales of local and regional agricultural products; 3) Development of new 

market opportunities for farm and ranch operations serving local markets, including farmers markets 

and community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs in local P&R sites; 4) Increased capacity of P&R

agencies to develop, coordinate, and/or expand equitable farmers markets and CSA programs as part of 

a community wellness hub model, with a focus on supporting COVID-19 response and recovery; and 5)

Increased number of resources available for P&R professionals to support farmers market planning, 

development, coordination, and expansion.

Recipient: Virginia Farmers Market Association

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $652,940.40

Match Amount: $163,235.50

Total Project Amount: $816,175.90

Establishing the Virginia Certified Farmers Market System

The COVID‐19 pandemic strongly reinforced the importance of farmers markets to Virginia’s food 

system. However, it also exposed dangerous misperceptions about markets, significant issues with 

policy and oversight, and the serious impact of non‐compliant markets. In addition, food insecurity in 

the state grew by 30%. During this time, the Virginia Farmers Market Association (VAFMA) became a 

hub for capacity building and information. We accelerated our support services and advocacy work on 

behalf of markets while fielding thousands of requests for assistance. Through this work, VAFMA’s 

visibility and credibility grew as the primary liaison between farmers markets and state and local 

government. We will capture this momentum to put forward effective solutions that will help Virginia 

emerge from this crisis with a more resilient food system. To do this, the Virginia Farmers Market 

Association proposes to 1) establish a Virginia Certified Farmers Market program, 2) create an extensive 

online training platform, and 3) initiate a statewide marketing and agritourism campaign to promote 

Virginia’s Certified Farmers Markets and the essential nature of farms and farmers markets to Virginians. 

Expected outcomes include increased professionalism and profitability of farmers markets, increased 

sales of local food, and better community and government understanding of the essential nature of 

farmers markets to food access.

Recipient: Common Grain Alliance

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $749,217.00

Match Amount: $342,203.00

Total Project Amount: $1,091,420.00
Bringing Grain Into the Mid-Atlantic Local Food System Through Consumer Awareness and Market 

Access

Since 2018, Common Grain Alliance (CGA) has built a network of over 80 farmers and grain processors in 

the Mid-Atlantic. Together and with partners across the region, CGA has identified several obstacles to

the growth of our grainshed. While the regional food economy in the Mid-Atlantic is thriving, consumer

awareness of regional grains as regional food is low. Furthermore, many grain farmers and processors 

do not have the capacity to enter lucrative farmers markets as full-time vendors due to insufficient

product volume and lack of infrastructure. To address these barriers, we are partnering with 

FRESHFARM—the largest farmers market organization in the Mid-Atlantic—to simultaneously increase

the presence of and demand for regional grains at Mid-Atlantic farmers markets. Through this proposed

project, we will: develop marketing and branding tools to expand consumer awareness and buy-in of

regional grains (Objective 1); increase revenue for grain farmers and processors through new direct-t

consumer market opportunities, training and technical assistance, and farmer/processor connections 

(Objective 2); and promote an equitable marketplace for regional grains within the regional food system 

for consumers, farmers, and processors (Objective 3). By coming together through this project, CGA, 

FRESHFARM, and our partners will be able to raise awareness of regional grains and create a measurable 

impact on sales for growers and vendors who incorporate regional grains in their products, supporting 

the long-term sustainability of the industry. Through existing food and market access infrastructure and

strategy, we will support a regional grain system that is accessible for socially disadvantaged farmers, 

processors, and customers.

Washington

Recipient: Bellingham SeaFeast

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $294,373.00

Match Amount: $112,331.30

Total Project Amount: $406,704.30

Sustain, Enhance, and Expand Bellingham Dockside Market

As a vital commercial fishing harbor, Bellingham, WA lands and processes much seafood. However, the 

large majority of the seafood harvested here is processed and distributed to domestic and international 

markets. Our local public has long been frustrated with the lack of opportunity to connect with our local 

fishing families to purchase quality local seafood. This fact coupled with the difficulties brought on by 

COVID (international markets in turmoil and restaurant closures) initiated community organizers to 

launch a start-up direct-to-consumer seafood sales opportunity October of 2020. Bellingham Docksi

Market, a program of Bellingham SeaFeast, in its initial start-up phase, has clearly demonstrated that

our local/regional community enjoys and appreciates the opportunity to buy directly from our local 

fishermen, to learn where and how their seafood is harvested, and practice simple seafood menus.

With the demonstrated success of the first eight months of Bellingham Dockside Market, we now need 

to develop a solid foundation to allow the market to survive and thrive. Developing and implementing 

clear strategies for growth, offering more fishing families (including our tribal fishermen) easy and 

efficient procedures (tool kits, training, and scholarships to support the start-up costs of permits and

insurance) to participate, expansion to include low-income support programs (SNAP), expanded

marketing outreach, and providing year-round consumer education/promotions effort to complement
the annual Bellingham SeaFeast festival are a few of the planned strategies to ensure a consistent and 

viable seafood market program benefitting both the vendors and our community.

Recipient: Sustainable Connections

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $517,553.57

Match Amount: $138,651.00

Total Project Amount: $656,204.57

Creating an Online Wholesale Marketing Infrastructure to Increase Equitable Market Access, Digital 

Proficiency, and Sales for Small to Mid-size Farms in Washington State

COVID-19 exacerbated a previously known issue for farms: lack of proficiency using digital marketing

and sales technology. Meanwhile, consumers utilized the internet at unprecedented rates to access food 

near them, leaving many local farm operations out of a primarily digital marketplace. Our farms are in 

need of technical assistance to reach, and be reached online. We will assist small and mid-sized farmers

and ranchers to create optimized seller profiles to be included in a new online wholesale search tool 

which will be used by retail, restaurant, institutional, and other buyers in Washington State. This project 

will prioritize serving farms that experience challenges adopting new technology, primarily in areas with 

historically lower access to professional and business support services. These areas include the Olympic 

Peninsula and Whitman County. We expect that through investment of time spent with farms 

individually, farmers will report greater confidence marketing their products in digital environments.

Recipient: Washington State Cheesemakers Association

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $334,795.49

Match Amount: $138,848.00

Total Project Amount: $473,643.49

Growing Sales and Expanding Marketing for Washington Artisan Cheesemakers

Washington may not be “America’s Dairyland,” but it is a cheese state. There are 53 licensed 

cheesemakers in Washington. This number includes farmstead cheesemakers who are dairy farmers, 

artisan cheesemakers who purchase milk for value‐added cheesemaking, and industrial‐level 

creameries. Most Washington cheesemakers produce cheeses on small or medium scale, selling less 

than $250,000 annually. Many of their cheeses are not available in stores, as they sell exclusively from 

farm stands or farmer’s markets. The Washington State Cheesemakers Association (WASCA) was 

founded in 2015 to support cheesemakers through education, promotion, and collaboration. FMPP 

funds would assist WASCA in efforts to educate consumers about the variety and quality of cheeses 

made in Washington. Many consumers became conscious of the importance of their local food economy 

during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Our organization would like to build that momentum to help 

Washington cheesemakers expand their market reach and attract more customers. This project will 

result in increased sales to cheesemakers and dairy farmers producing fluid cheese milk by way of: 1) 

Strengthening cheesemakers’ ability to draw long‐term sales by providing them educational trainings in 

food safety, regulations, and cheesemaking science; 2) Establishing a “Washington Cheese Month” 

celebrated with in‐person and virtual events to engage cheesemakers and farmers, consumers, and 

vendors; 3) Building a “Meet the Cheesemakers” campaign to connect consumers directly with 

cheesemakers via agritourism, festivals, educational seminars and tastings, and other communications;
and 4) Developing a retail marketing campaign for Washington cheeses sold in grocery stores, including 

a cheesemonger education program and merchandise signage.

West Virginia

Recipient: Tri-State Local Food

Project Type: Capacity Building

Award Amount: $464,136.00

Match Amount: $117,259.00

Total Project Amount: $581,395.00

Implementation of an Online Ordering Platform in Response to COVID 19, Expanding the Availability 

of Local Agricultural Products

Tri-State Local Foods, dba The Wild Ramp, is a year-round, non-profit farmers market based 

Huntington, WV. Our mission is to grow and support a vibrant economy and community for local food, 

food products, and artisan goods. We seek to increase local farmer and artisan revenues and aid in 

expanding their efforts. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for online and/or contact-fre

sales. Our response to the pandemic is creating and implementing an online ordering platform to 

complement our current storefront. This platform will allow us to expand our business even further, 

increasing farmer and producer revenues as well as expanding access to nutritious local food and goods 

to our community. Project Goals: upgrade our computer system and point-of-sale software; redevelo

our website; rent space to house our online inventory; lease refrigeration units to properly store online 

inventory; revitalize our marketing strategy; expand our personnel for managing online inventory, 

computer systems, accounting, and marketing. Expected outcomes: expanded access to local foods and 

food products; upgraded system for online ordering and marketing; increased income for local farmers 

and artisans; increased web traffic; increased consumer audience.

Recipient: West Virginia Farmers Market Association

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $347,884.70

Match Amount: $87,584.00

Total Project Amount: $435,468.70

West Virginia Farmers Market Marketing and Agriculture Business Entrepreneurship Program

West Virginia farmers markets and vendors have faced challenges in marketing and business 

development which has caused barriers in the success of agriculture businesses and stressed an already 

depleted economy in the region. Now recovering from a global pandemic, these small businesses need 

clear guides in place to increase generated revenue and continue to provide food access to a state with 

a poverty rate at 16%. This program will assist farmers markets and agricultural businesses in 

understanding, planning, and implementing marketing and business development strategies to rebuild 

and strengthen these rural economies. Participants will learn valuable skills to provide products to their 

communities that are safe, cost effective, and visually appealing. While working closely with experienced 

and knowledgeable organizations, participants will be encouraged to develop effective marketing 

strategies. A second theme is creating a safer and more diverse food landscape at farmers markets 

through introduction of new product lines, cottage foods and value added items. Individual farmers will 
increase revenue and West Virginia will establish a clear, concise and consistent message regarding food 

safety for entrepreneurs. Through a series of workshops, the WV Farmers Market Association and 

partners will collaborate to address key barriers in communication and business expansion.

This program will result in increased access to safe locally grown foods, and increased revenue for small 

businesses. Additionally, a service will be established for agriculture businesses in the state to allow 

ongoing technical assistance and one-on-one coaching for small businesses seeking to understan

labeling requirements and develop a marketing plan.

Wisconsin

Recipient: Board of Regents of the Univ. of Wisconsin System

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $749,661.00

Match Amount: $77,395.00

Total Project Amount: $827,056.00

Sustain and Grow Wisconsin Farmers Markets through Data Collection, Networks and Collaboration

This project will help Wisconsin farmers markets improve their ability to serve diverse vendors, patrons 

and communities in 3 ways. First, by promoting informed decision-making through better data collection

and information exchange. We propose to address these needs by increasing information exchange 

between market managers, by updating and expanding upon existing data through a statewide survey of 

farmers markets and geographically targeted farmers market needs and opportunities assessments, and 

by partnering with Farm2Facts to collect and evaluate market-specific data. Second, by enhancing

market connectivity through strategic network building. To build collaborative relationships and the 

capacity of farmers markets in different regions of the state, the WFMA and Extension will collaborate 

with groups of markets that currently exist and look for opportunities to build new market networks. 

We will also work to build the capacity of each network to identify and address it’s members needs. The 

third aspect of this project will be updating organizational infrastructure to provide better ongoing 

support to Wisconsin farmers markets through a restructuring of the state association and its website.

Wyoming

Recipient: Central Wyoming College

Project Type: Community Development, Training, and Technical Assistance

Award Amount: $653,994.36

Match Amount: $219,935.13

Total Project Amount: $873,929.49

Developing Food Economy Resiliency through Strengthening Regional Food Enterprises and Markets

The Developing Food Economy Resiliency project will 1) Train, and provide technical assistance to, new 

and beginning farmers in high-altitude, semi-arid fruit and vegetable crop production, business planning

and marketing local food and value-added products; 2) Expand producer-to-consumer market acces

and thereby income, for producers in Fremont County, which includes the Wind River Reservation, 

through county-wide coordination of farmers’ markets and expansion of county-wide Speedgoat Marke

food hub network of online farmers’ market sales; and 3) Increase access to locally-grown, nutritious,
affordable food for low-income, food insecure, rural communities through development of farmers’

markets and food hub network. Fremont County, which encompasses the Reservation, is populated by 

39,261 residents sprinkled across a Vermont-sized area with 2 cities, 4 towns, and 8 census-designate

places. The cities (pop. 10,891 and pop. 7,555) command the most food access, both for producer-t

consumer markets and out-of-state food products. This leaves over 30% of Fremont County as foo

insecure. Currently, a farmers’ market manager for an isolated, rural Dubois (pop. 842) drives a 3-hour

round trip to the City of Riverton to purchase, at the Riverton farmers’ market there, local food for 

resale at the small Dubois farmers’ market. Producers cannot financially afford to travel the distances 

required to reach the small farmers’ markets. The project will train new and beginning farmers in food 

storage and handling, and producer-to-consumer marketing. It will connect local food producers to t

food insecure communities through developing farmers’ markets and a local food hub network.