New Program Encourages Purchasing Of Food From Local Farms

A USDA grant is supporting the Food and Growers Association's Indiana Food Connect program.

Oak Hawk is the new value chain coordinator for the Food and Growers Association in southeastern Indiana. Photo provided.

(Undated) - The Food and Growers Association is working to bring locally grown food to your table.

The FGA has established a program to increase local food purchasing of locally grown food in southeastern Indiana. It has partnered with Indiana University and Purdue University to create Indiana Farm Connect.

Indiana Food Connect is supported by a $516,000 Local Food Promotion Program grant through the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service to strengthen local food systems in Indiana.

Oak Hawk, a Rushville resident, has been selected as a Value Chain Coordinator to work with farmers, distributors, food businesses and wholesale buyers in southeastern Indiana to ensure that locally grown food gets to prominent institutions in the community.

Scale, regulations and efficiency are the three main factors farmers face while trying to sell to institutions. Value chain coordinators, like Hawk, will assist in overcoming those barriers by working with buyers and growers to develop strategies, solutions and sales.

“It is important to understand the economic potential of shifting institutional food expenditures to Indiana farms and food businesses. Institutions and food retailers, such as universities, K-12 schools, hospitals, small grocers and workplace food services have an important role to play in stabilizing markets for farmers,” says Jodee Ellett, who oversees community engagement for the Indiana University Sustainable Food Systems Science Initiative.

The project will work with the Wallace Center, a national leader in developing local food systems and with Family Farmed to provide technical assistance in regards to food safety, and assist growers in meeting the requirements to attain GAPs (Good Agricultural Practices) certification required by many wholesale buyers.

For those interested in these events, visit www.foodandgrowers.com. Hawk can be contacted at southeastindianafarmconnectvcc@gmail.com. For more information about the Indiana Farm Connect project, contact Jodee Ellett at ellett@iu.edu.