Agricultural markets -- Supply chain -- Illinois -- Case studies
Farmers markets -- Illinois
Geographic Coverage
Illinois
Abstract
The Illinois Sustainable Technology Center-administered Farm to Food Bank Survey revealed that farmers markets are the number one sales channel that support farmers in Illinois. Upon learning this, the Farm to Food Bank team partnered with the Illinois Farmers Market Association and began speaking with various farmers markets around the state. Seeking to partner with established markets that had ample farm vendors, and markets that are run by paid staff, the Farm to Food Bank Program partnered with Land of Goshen Community Market in Edwardsville, IL, Old Capital Farmers Market in Springfield, IL, and Green City Farmers Market in Chicago, IL. Instead of only capturing unsold food, the Farm to Food Bank team designed a pilot project to ask farmers to bring any surplus and off-grade product left back at the farm; products they would not have otherwise brought to the market to sell. The goal of these pilot projects was to use farmers markets as an aggregation hub for farmers that were interested in participating in the Farm to Food Bank Program, but may not have the quantity to work directly with a food bank and may not have a connection with a local food pantry. Participating in the program may also be appealing to farmers who don’t have time to communicate with another entity such as a food bank or food pantry, or time to make an additional delivery throughout the week. At the end of the 2022 farmers market season, Feeding Illinois and the farmers market partners reimbursed farmers $4,761.20 in PPO costs to aid in the donation of 11,903 pounds of fresh produce. This supported 12 farmers across the three farmers markets.
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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