WHO WE ARE

Farm2People is a small volunteer collective connecting sustainable farmers and their locally produced meat, eggs, and occasionally produce to community kitchens and free food distribution projects.

Farm to table shouldn't just be for the wealthy who can pay the tab at a fancy restaurant. Farm2People aims to be one bridge across class gap in local food systems. We want the best, most nutritional, and most sustainable food for all of our neighbors, prioritizing communities who have been marginalized and cut off from food and land access.

HOW IT WORKS

On one end, we work with farmers & food producers. We know that local farmers who are producing sustainably with respect and care for the land often can't afford to donate much of what they produce. We fund raise so we can pay farmers what they need, for the nutrition that the people deserve to eat. And it's still a good deal. Some producers have products that don't sell well but that are still of very high quality, and sometimes they run into unexpected over-supply hiccups -- it can work for them to give us a good deal if we help coordinate logistics to get that food into kitchens that will use it, and still help the farmer recoup costs. We are grateful for the farmers & producers that support this project, we want them to be supported in building back local food systems, too. And in our experience, when they can farmers DO donate or give us cut rates. Because their life's work is producing good food, accessible to everyone, and we share that goal.

On the other end we work with kitchens and food distributors that prepare and distribute meals to people in our communities for free. These kitchens do amazing work, and when we supply them with good ingredients our neighbors eat the better, healthier, food they deserve. With our limited logistics capacity Farm2People focuses particularly on meat and eggs to make the biggest impact we can. Free kitchens tend to find easier access to low cost or donated produce, but many culturally appropriate foods for the populations free kitchens serve include meat and eggs. We try to bridge that gap -- good, local food should be for everyone.

Sometimes we also distribute products directly to community members who can freeze/refrigerate/prepare their own meals, particularly among folks who do not have proper access to high quality food because of structural racism, colonization, and exploitation.

A LITTLE HISTORY

We started doing this in 2020 when farmers markets were shut down due to covid and a lot of farmers had excess product they weren't able to sell. Then we kept on it, because people told us how much of a difference it made to get access to such clean, nutritious ingredients in bulk. Since then we have distributed uncounted pounds of chicken, pork, eggs, and assorted produce to free kitchens and community members. We distributed thousands of pounds of brunch-restaurant-grade meat just in the past year!  After we handed it off to cooks it became tamales, stews, breakfasts, hearty sandwiches, fried chicken, tacos, and so much more. Now we are setting up this fund raiser so we can expand our relationships to new farmers and be a more reliable resource for the kitchens and food distribution groups we partner with.

It's all about trustworthy relationships and connections that we build over time -- to small farmers strengthening local food systems, and to the people cooking and distributing food in good relationship with neighbors and communities who need and deserve support.

Farm to People! Local food systems for all!