Improving Viability for Small Farms Operated by Underserved Producers through Scaled Market Connections and Cooperative Sales

Commodities

Practices

In Harmony Farm and seven farm partners (FP), each with
one-to-five-acre parcels, will implement the project. The effort
is focused on a combination of farmer education/skill building to
support marketing, raising awareness of the value of locally
sourced, sustainably produced food (LSF) with institutional
consumers, and creating a digital point of sale to connect
farmers and institutional consumers.

Efforts address multiple community needs, including:

• Limited access to urban plots of land, minimal opportunities
  to scale, and inaccessible business support often prevent refugee
  farmers from expanding their businesses. IHF provides larger
  parcels, business support to formalize operations, and
  instruction in regenerative agriculture.
• Market development for larger purchases is necessary to
  support scaled production. Aside from farm-to-table restaurants,
  there are limited institutional markets for LSF resulting in most
  refugee farmers making direct-to-consumer sales – a strategy that
  can’t stand alone as they scale. This project will raise
  awareness of the value of sustainable production, creating
  institutional demand to balance farmers’ direct-to-consumer
  efforts.
• Connecting institutional buyers to larger-scale sources of
  LSF using an adapted, digital point of sale that allows
  institutions to identify needs and farmers to make evidence-based
  planning decisions to meet those demands.

IHF will partner with seven small, beginning farm businesses
operated by historically underserved producers to teach farmers
how to:

• Implement sustainable agricultural practices.
• Market their harvest through cooperative, online presales.
• Use presales as an effective strategy to support efficient
  crop planting resulting in environmentally, socially, and
  financially sustainable production.

IHF will complete outreach to at least 100 institutional
consumers to:

• Demonstrate the value of sustainable agricultural production.
• Connect institutional consumers to points of purchase for
  LSF.
• Increase consumer access to and purchase of LSF for
  institutions and the people they serve.