NH Community Food Ambassadors for Mobile Farmers Markets

Project Overview

ONE19-349
Project Type: Partnership
Funds awarded in 2019: $30,000.00
Projected End Date: 01/31/2021
Grant Recipient: Organization for Refugee and Immigrant Success
Region: Northeast
State: New Hampshire
Project Leader:
Allison Cunningham
Email
Organization for Refugee and Immigrant Success

Information Products

Commodities

Not commodity specific

Practices

  • Sustainable Communities: local and regional food systems

    Proposal abstract:

    ORIS and Fresh Start Farms farmers will launch a Local Food Mobile Market during summer 2019, with three- year funding from the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation. The Mobile Market will sell produce at 11 public and other New Hampshire housing complexes.

    The 2019 and 2020 seasons will determine community adoption of the Mobile Market and its integration into Fresh Start Farms’ overall sales and growth strategy. ORIS needs to communicate to consumers: (1) What a mobile market is and what is available for sale (types of produce; individual pieces or boxes of mixed produce); (2) When the mobile market arrives at specific sites; (3) That fresh produce is inexpensive: consumers can purchase locally grown produce with SNAP and double value vouchers; (4) That fresh produce is tasty, healthy, and best for cooking. Outreach and messaging must be (1) linguistically and culturally appropriate, (2) concise, (3) consistent and repeated, and (4) enticing. Technology can remove participation barriers.

    This Northeast SARE grant seeks to demonstrate that use of 8 Community Food Ambassadors can (1) enhance resident participation in a new mobile farmers’ market and (2) affect resident food consumption decisions, such that local farmers, who contribute to the mobile farmers’ market will sell a combined $45,000 in produce during 2019 and $60,000 during 2020. The project will discover whether a new mobile market point-of-sale platform – Farmer’s Register – is effective for ordering, distribution chain management, and sales tracking by a community- based mobile farmers’ market and socially disadvantaged farmers.

    Project objectives from proposal:

    The project seeks to demonstrate that use of 8 Community Food Ambassadors can (1) enhance resident participation in a new mobile farmers’ market and (2) affect resident food consumption decisions, such that local farmers, who contribute to the mobile farmers’ market will sell a combined $45,000 in produce during 2019 and $60,000 during 2020.

    The project will discover whether a new mobile market point-of-sale software as a service platform – Farmer’s Register – can be effectively used for ordering, distribution chain management, and sales tracking by a community-based mobile farmers’ market and socially disadvantaged farmers who serve low-income consumers.

    Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or SARE.