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USDA Community Food Project grants
Here is yesterday's USDA News Release and Backgrounder announcing
$2.5 million in 18 grants for community food projects:
USDA COMMEMORATES FARMERS' MARKET WEEK AND WORLD FOOD DAY
Release No. 0357.97
Tom Amontree (202) 720-4623
tamontree@usda.gov
Laura Trivers (202) 720-4623
ltrivers@usda.gov
USDA COMMEMORATES FARMERS' MARKET WEEK AND WORLD FOOD DAY
WASHINGTON, Oct. 16, 1997--Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman
today
commemorated National Farmers Market Week and World Food Day with a
special farmers' market on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
Speaking amidst vendors offering fresh produce, baked goods, and
dairy
products from nearly 20 farmers, Glickman said it was appropriate to
celebrate both occasions on the Mall. "In Washington's early years,
the Mall was used as a gathering place, a place to graze livestock and
an open air market where farmers could sell their crops," he said.
"Today we celebrate the continuing contributions of farmers'
markets
in providing fresh, nutritious food products which are sold directly
to urban and rural citizens. Also, on the occasion of World Food Day,
we honor the extraordinary efforts of America's farmers and ranchers
and producers around the globe in providing the products for the
world's dinner tables," Glickman said.
Farmers' markets are an important outlet for small to
medium-sized
farmers. The number of markets has grown substantially during the
past few years -- up from 1,755 in 1994, to more than 2,400 today.
USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service continues to work with
communities across the country to develop new farmers' markets, and
expand and improve existing ones. In addition, USDA has nearly
doubled the budget for WIC Farmers' Markets so that even more
nutritionally at risk women, infants, and children will have access to
fresh fruits and vegetables.
Farmers' markets also are popular in Washington, D.C. USDA
headquarters hosted 10 markets this season, and facilitated an
additional 21 markets at the Departments of Energy, Transportation and
Labor. A total of 165 vendors from 7 states participated in these
markets this year, up from 84 in 1996. USDA expanded its outreach to
include more minority participants and farmers from South Carolina and
Delaware.
Glickman also announced that USDA's Cooperative State Research,
Education, and Extension Service is providing $2.5 million in 18
grants to help communities in 16 states become more self-sufficient in
providing for their food and nutrition needs. Each grant provides
between $10,000 and $200,000 for one to three years to develop
community food projects which address local food, farm, and nutrition
issues.
"These grants are effective because long-term food security
depends on
strong connections among people in a community," Glickman said. "They
will help communities establish the strong people-to-people
connections which enable them to provide for their own food and
nutrition needs."
Communities receiving the grants are: Sells, Ariz.; Salinas,
Calif.;
Hartford, Conn.; Griffin, Ga.; Boone, Iowa; DeRidder, La.; Wiscasset,
Maine; Detroit, Mich.; St. Paul, Minn.; Missoula, Mont.; Trenton,
N.J.; New York City, N.Y. (2); Washburn, Tenn.; Austin, Texas;
Houston, Texas; South Burlington, Vt.; and Tacoma, Wash.
"This is also the 17th year that World Food Day has been observed
around the world," said Glickman. "It is a day for each of us to work
in some way to alleviate hunger in the United States and around the
world. I encourage everyone to get involved. Gleaning and food
recovery efforts are just one way we can help people who are hungry,
malnourished, or impoverished."
"Food gleaning is becoming an integral part of farmers' markets,"
said
Glickman. "In Washington, D.C., alone, more than 8,000 pounds of food
and food products were donated to the D.C. Central Kitchen during the
1997 season from markets held at USDA and other federal departments.
Farmers' markets across the country have followed USDA's lead in
advancing the Clinton Administration's efforts to expand food recovery
activities."
#
NOTE: USDA news releases and media advisories are available on the
Internet. Access the USDA Home Page on the World Wide Web at
http://www.usda.gov
Release No. 0358.97
Backgrounder
THE COMMUNITY FOOD PROJECT GRANTS 1997
The Tohono O'odham Community Food System
Jubilee Agriculture Ministries, Sells, Arizona -- $80,000
This project will increase the food self-reliance of the Tohono
O'odham people by developing linkages between producers, markets,
consumers and nutritionists. Program directions include the
development and expansion of community gardens, organization of a
desert food collecting program, redevelopment of traditional Tohono
O'odham flood-based farming practices, development of
direct-to-customer and wholesale markets for traditional Tohono
O'odham foods, initiation of culturally sensitive nutrition education
programs and support for the development of agriculture-based
micro-enterprise projects. Contact: Tristan Reader 520-383-4966
Food Security Among Farm Worker Communities in the Salinas Valley
Rural Development Center, Salinas, California -- $105,000 This project
will create permanent, self-sustaining ways for low-income farm worker
and migrant communities to access, produce and market high quality,
safe, nutritious and affordable food. Members of the community will
be trained to grow a wide variety of organic vegetables, and to create
permanent, self-supporting ways to market and distribute their
produce. A Public Education and Policy Council will be established to
coordinate local food security issues, initiate appropriate policies
and implement a community education program. Contact: Jose Montenegro
408-758-1469
Community Food Security Coalition Training And Technical Assistance
Project The Community Food Security Coalition, Hartford, Connecticut
-- $185,000 This project is national in scope and designed to promote
community food projects by direct assistance to communities,
pro-actively promoting the concepts of comprehensive community food
system planning, and offering small grants to communities to help them
develop linkages, conduct needs assessments, and support
entrepreneurship. Contact: Andrew Fisher 310-822-5410
>From Crisis Management to Creative Construction: Building Sustainable
Food Systems Five Loaves and Two Fish Food Pantry, Griffin, Georgia
-- 156,000 Over thirty partners have come together to conduct this
project which will transform their community response to poverty and
hunger from "firefighters" to "architects" building food security and
self-reliance. A systems approach will bring representatives from
academia, food retail, local business, financial, educational, health,
social service, religious and governmental organizations together in
multi-sector, multi-agency involvement enhancing and building local
capacity to respond to issues of food security. Contact: Kate
McLaurin 770-227-4453
Field to Family
Practical Farmers of Iowa, Boone, Iowa -- $135,600
Local churches, social service organizations, community supported
agriculture (CSA) groups, sustainable agriculture organizations,
academia, and businesses are coming together to rebuild community ties
between diverse sectors of the food system. The goals of the project
are to (1) make fresh, locally grown produce available to low-income
households along with the opportunity to design and develop the local
food system; (2) link low-income Field to Family participants with
churches and agencies now organizing to help families leave welfare
successfully; (3) increase use of locally grown food and foster the
start-up and growth of small to medium sized producers, and; (4)
promote the role local agriculture can play in supporting communities.
Contact: Gary Huber 515-294-8512
Beauregard Community Food and Nutrition Program
Beauregard Community Action Association, Inc., DeRidder, Louisiana --
$50,000 This project builds coalitions among low-income residents and
a renewed spirit of cooperation between resource agencies among all
sectors and volunteers. The project will increase access to fresh
produce and increase household incomes. Increased self-reliance over
food will be attained by providing households the opportunity to
produce their own food, preserve the food, learn how to prepare
nutritious meals, preserve their seeds for the next planting season,
make a compost fertilizer, and to shop for foods in a more economical
manner. Contact: Winkie Branch 318-463-7895
Western Waldo County Food Project
Coastal Enterprises, Inc., Wiscasset, Maine -- $164,000
This is a comprehensive food system project that creates new linkages
in an economically stressed rural region in Maine. The three main
activities of this project include; a downtown center, the community
cafe, organized around local foods, and used to prepare, distribute,
and celebrate good food from local farms and gardens; a school based
education program, "Kids, Food and Community," that teaches local
children about food, farming and the interconnections with community;
and the "Community Farm Incubator" that supplies farm products to
local markets and offers job training and provides a low-cost means of
starting out in farming. The funded project will act as an agent to
bind these three activities into a whole project to benefit the
community. Contact: John Piotti 207-948-3335
Detroit Urban Cooperative Agricultural Network (Detroit U-Can)
Hunger Action Coalition of Michigan, Detroit, Michigan -- $180,000
Project participants have come together to create a sustainable
alternative food related economic sector that can enhance food
security in severely blighted urban communities. Five specific
projects will develop community capacity within Detroit's Empowerment
Zone's economic sector. Youth projects will build hope for children
and a foundation for the future of urban agriculture. Contact: David
Hacker 313-963-7788
The Youth Farm and Market Project: Building a Neighborhood,
Youth-based Food System The Regeneration Partnership, St. Paul,
Minnesota -- $170,000 The Youth Farm and Market Project established in
1995 has successfully brought youth in the food system in both
producing and marketing produce in low-income communities. This
project will expand to three new neighborhoods and create
opportunities for urban youth to be an integral part of
neighborhood-based food systems; provide high quality food to
low-income people; and catalyze a neighborhood food system that
incorporate a wide variety of neighborhood organizations and local
agencies as collaborators. Contact: David Brant 612-374-3993
Missoula Food System-Community Agriculture Project
Missoula Nutrition Services, Missoula, Montana -- $175,000
A comprehensive collaboration of food, health, university, volunteer
and social organizations will continue with a variety of community
food projects plus initiate intensive gleaning, composting, marketing,
and community education activities. The coalition of organizations
integrates families and individuals into the food system to produce
high quality food for low- income people while developing skills that
lead to household self-sufficiency and agricultural entrepreneurship.
Some unique characteristics of the project include; a Community
Supported Agriculture (CSA) Farm for low-income people; welfare
recipients participating to complete required community service; food
bank production plots plus a "Grow a Row"in home gardens for donation;
and marketing and sustainable agriculture education programs.
Contact: Mary Pittaway 406-523-4740
Isle's Community Farm Project
Isles, Inc., Trenton, New Jersey -- $114,000
The Isles' Community Farm Project plans to develop a model program
with a five-acre community farm to increase the supply of affordable,
nutritious food to low-income families while creating economic
development opportunities. Forty-low income residents will be trained
in food/plant production and business skills and 14 seasonal jobs will
be created. Revenues will be generated from the sale of fresh produce
and horticulture products including ornamentals. Produce will be
distributed to low-income people through an on-site retail farm stand,
CSA shares, farm-stands in low-income communities, and emergency food
providers. Contact: Ronald Friedman 609-393-5656
The City Farms
Learning Alliance, New York, New York -- $198,500
The City farms project is an alliance of five New York organizations
collaborating to improve regional food security. The project will;
improve availability of fresh food in New York's low- income
neighborhoods by expanding the capacity of urban growers to produce
healthful, nutritious food and distribute it through established food
sites; promote community-based entrepreneurship and economic
opportunity through food production, processing and marketing;
strengthen urban markets for farmers by fostering relationships among
city residents and regional and local growers; and build public
support for the preservation of open space for food production.
Contact: Kathy Lawrence 212-666-2168
Expanding Access to Fresh Produce for Poor New Yorkers
Community Food Resources Center, New York, New York -- $95,000
The project activities will demonstrate to retailers that consumers
will buy quality produce, help retailers gain expertise buying and
selling produce, prove to wholesalers that they will make money if
they change their operations and help create linkages between urban
retailers and regional farmers. Contact: Pamela Fairclogh 212-344-0195
Washburn Community Food System Development Project
Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center, Washburn, Tennessee -- $10,400
Diminished agricultural enterprises and a weakened economic base
within Washburn have created significant barriers to food security.
The purpose of this project is to build community organizational
infrastructure and leadership capacity to enhance the nutritional
well-being of Washburn families by increasing access to high quality
food through lowering of physical and economic barriers, to strengthen
of educational resources to enhance capacity for informed decision
making and appropriate resource utilization choices, and to build
community infrastructure for long term collaborative partnerships
among stakeholders inside and beyond the Washburn community. Contact:
Bill Nickle 423-497-2753
Central Texas Sustainable Food Project
Sustainable Food Center, Austin, Texas -- $145,000
This project will leverage the success of an earlier project that
showed community food production was a viable method for meeting the
food needs of low-income people. Two communities will collaborate,
sharing expertise in operating community food programs. The
Sustainable Food Center will expand its program to include food-based
business development to move low-income people form "clients" to
self-employed entrepreneurs. This will be accomplished by piloting a
"Farm-to-Chef Marketing Network" developing a micro-enterprise program
and expanding "Team Green!," a youth training program. Contact:
Kathleen Fitzgerald 512-385-0080
Houston Wards Youth Food-for-Market Project
Urban Harvest, Inc., Houston, Texas -- $121,500
Inner city middle school youth gain practical gardening skills and
learn not only about food and nutrition, but also how to apply this
knowledge to income earning enterprises in this project. By selling
produce to a community center co-op and cafe, money is returned to the
community while providing nutritious food to the center's patrons. In
addition, the sale of food and value-added products at a city-wide
green market enables youth to demonstrate that training and diligence
can provide income. The youth can further help the food security of
the community by building raised bed intensive gardens for backyard
gardens in return for payment. Contact: Robert Randall 713-880-5540
People Grow
The Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger, South Burlington,
Vermont -- $200,000 Eight leading Vermont agriculture, food and
anti-hunger organizations have come together to work in one rural and
one urban Enterprise Community to build these communities'
self-reliance in meeting their own food needs. Strategies will
include involvement in community gardens and Community Support
Agriculture (CSA); development of food preparation, preservation and
marketing skills that can be used to grow, preserve and market Vermont
produce and to prepare low-cost, nutritious meals at home; increasing
availability of fresh, local produce at emergency food sites;
coordinating food assistance and education that offer gardening and
nutrition education and healthy meals to low-income children; creating
opportunities for local purchasing and market development for foods
produced through micro-enterprise. Contact: Robert Dostis
802-865-0255
Tahoma Food System
The Tahoma Food System, Tacoma, Washington -- $105,000
Southeast Asian families, already trained in agriculture in their
native countries will be given training in organic farming and direct
niche marketing until they have the experience and funds to start
their own farms, or become economically self-sufficient. This builds
on an already successful urban farm that provides paid jobs for
homeless people and farm labor for an organic Community Supported
Agriculture Project and assists the Tahoma Food System develop into a
strong multi-sector food and farm system non-profit organization.
Contact: Carrie Little 253-572-6582
#
NOTE: USDA news releases and media advisories are available on the
Internet. Access the USDA Home Page on the World Wide Web at
http://www.usda.gov
Len Carey
Media Relations
USDA Cooperative State Research,
Education, and Extension Service
lcarey@reeusda.gov
Voice: 202/720-1358
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