Agricultural markets -- Supply chain -- Illinois -- Case studies
Geographic Coverage
Northern Illinois
Abstract
Sam the Sweet Corn Man Farm is a family farm located in Maple Park, Illinois. While much of the farm’s land is used for growing field corn and soybean, they grow roughly 20 acres of specialty crops as well. They sell their product in the wholesale market and recently made a transition to focus their specialty crop production on Hispanic retail markets. Feeding Illinois and the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) first connected with Sam the Sweet Corn Man Farm after they indicated their interest in a more in-depth conversation on the ISTC-administered Farm to Food Bank survey in 2021. The first conversation took place in January of 2022 where the farmer mentioned that currently the most economical option for this surplus and off-grade product is to plow it back into the field, but that he would be interested in partnering with a food bank. After discussing the type of products grown on the farm, including tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, cucumbers, calabacita, and pinto beans, Northern Illinois Food Bank was very interested in a partnership. By the end of the 2022 growing season, Feeding Illinois reimbursed Sam the Sweet Corn Man Farm the Picking and Pack-Out (PPO) costs for donating 7,650 pounds of product.
Publisher
Champaign, IL : Illinois Sustainable Technology Center
Publications from ISTC TAP's Farm to Food Bank project. The project aims to connect food banks with farms to purchase products like fruits, vegetables, cheese, milk, meat, and eggs directly from farmers. The overall goal of the project is to identify and build a long-term market and infrastructure for Illinois farmers and Illinois food banks.
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