The Farmlink Project is quickly making a name for itself in the United States charitable food space. Like Food Recovery Network (FRN), The Farmlink Project is a national volunteer organization run almost entirely by college students, and its impact is astounding—over 25 million pounds of fresh food donated and over $5 million raised in less than one year. I’m an FRN member at the University of Virginia, which first brought me into contact with The Farmlink Project in July of 2020.
The Process, Projects, and People
The Farmlink Project locates surplus produce from farms across the country and coordinates the logistics to deliver that produce to food banks and community organizations. We have a myriad of teams that make this all happen, and since joining, I’ve been fortunate to find myself on the Farms Team—I’m one of the people who source food by contacting farms directly and starting the conversation about who we are and what we do. This part of the process is open externally, so I also host groups of volunteers, many of them connected through FRN, and introduce them to The Farmlink Project’s system of researching and calling farm contacts.
Over the winter and into this spring, Farmlink members began a number of “Growth Projects” working to expand our impact in the food insecurity space. I chose to get involved in several of these projects. One that I’m particularly excited about is called Tax Fluency, through which I’m working with lawyers and accountants to determine how Farmlink can help farmers take advantage of federal tax benefits when they donate their surplus food. While still a work in progress, this project may lead us to reach more farms with larger quantities of food, as well as significantly increasing our value-add for those organizations. Other Growth Projects include policy advocacy, nutrition education, alternative transportation, and more.
Steps Forward
The work we do to move surplus food to communities in need is exciting, important, and impactful, but the primary reason I love dedicating my time to The Farmlink Project is because of the incredible community and work environment I get to be a part of. Meetings are high-energy and upbeat. Power Hours are relaxing, and the work is satisfying. Most importantly, The Farmlink Project team members are some of the kindest, smartest, most passionate people I’ve ever met, and they inspire me to be a better person every single day. In the time I’ve spent on this team, I’ve only ever wanted to have the opportunity to do more.
If The Farmlink Project sounds interesting to you, you can start by checking out our website and joining our Power Hours! You could be personally responsible for sending tons (literally) of fresh produce to communities in need. Otherwise, you can subscribe to the newsletter, follow our social media, and tell your friends! The larger our network is, the greater impact we can have.
That’s my story with The Farmlink Project—one that is nowhere near over. And hopefully, your story will begin soon, too.