A Brief Re-Introduction to Farm2People

Nov 2

Written By Anna Rose Hopkins & Helen Dodd

Hey everyone!

This has been a whirlwind of a year with big challenges and hope in unexpected places! We would like to take a moment to re-introduce Farm2People and share some of what fuels our optimism, because our work is vital and virtuous! Farm2People is tackling food insecurity while lifting up small- and mid-sized California farmers and visioning a food and climate secure Southern California! Learn how below …

Produce boxes from one of our farm partners that went out recently 🫑

Our origin …

In 2020, when the food supply chain more or less crashed, we realized that emergency food – the food available at food banks and other hunger relief initiatives – was either highly processed or untraceable, from farms often out of country despite California’s rich agricultural bounty. We also realized that the California family farmers committed to supporting natural ecosystems while growing the most nutrient dense produce are (and have been) in an existential spiral to keep growing. So, farms need support, and food insecure people need the nutrition the farms grow every day.

Enter: F2P!

Farm2People fills a big gap in the local food supply chain. We are not a food recovery organization (like Food Forward or Food Cycle, for instance), nor are we a farm ourselves. Rather, Farm2People is a nonprofit (non-traditional) food hub. We are based in Los Angeles and do – what we call in the biz – “values-based procurement,” which is a fancy way of saying that we are middle-of-supply-chain folx. Farm2People finds local and regional family farmers to support economically while bringing nutrient dense food to food insecure Angelenos.

Beautiful end-of-summer squash grown regeneratively in California

Wait, I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about food hubs recently. What even is a food hub? you might be thinking …

The National Food Hub Collaboration defines a food hub as “a business or organization that actively manages the aggregation, distribution, and marketing of source-identified food products primarily from local and regional producers to strengthen their ability to satisfy wholesale, retail, and institutional demand.” In other words, food hubs increase market opportunities for small- and mid-sized growers.

So Farm2People exists as a farmer-focused food hub, providing critical support to our independent growers in the state. Not only do we prioritize socially disadvantaged farmers operating at small and medium scales, but we also specifically work with growers who practice regenerative agriculture. Farmers are on the front lines of climate mitigating solutions, and we know that regenerative methods both provide safer conditions for the farmworker and produce more nutrient-dense food for the consumer. Additionally, we always purchase our fruits and vegetables at the farmer-set price, which enables our small growers to keep tending their soils.

Boxes full of local produce at a recent distribution 🌶️

Ok, but where does the produce go again?

Farm2People partners with food banks, community based organizations and other institutions in Greater LA who distribute our produce to their food insecure constituents.

But wait, I heard the federal government stopped collecting data on food insecurity. Doesn’t that mean that food insecurity is no longer a problem?

The bummer is that food insecurity is not only still with us, it is growing thanks to a general affordability crisis in America. That’s why Farm2People is still hard at work fighting hunger.

The Farm2People system ensures that humans on both sides of the local food supply chain are valued. We are keeping family farmers farming and we are feeding folx whole nutrition when they need it most. It’s a win-win for everyone!