Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The Building Rural Hunger Free Communities with Accessible Market Models project is designed by the Appalachia Accessible Food Network (AAFN) to expand community access locations in five counties of Appalachia Ohio: Athens, Morgan, Meigs, Perry and Washington. AAFN is a collaboration of healthy food access non-profits, healthcare and educational institutions, and community stakeholders formed to accelerate the distribution of local foods into Appalachian Ohio communities by strengthening access, production, aggregations, distribution, and consumption for a fair food system in Appalachia Ohio. To create a fair food system in Appalachia Ohio the partnersfocus on market diven approached to increase local, healthy food access throughFarm to School initiatives, Country Fresh Stops in rural villages' convenience stores and gas stations, the Community Food Initiatives' Donation Station, Farmers Markets, our Veggie Van and multiple Buying Club models. Critical to our success are the linkages between the anchor organizations' facilities: The Chesterhill Produce Auction, The Rural Action Incubator Farm, The ACEnet Food Ventures Center and Food and Farm Enterprise Center. Using our critical infrastructure for food processing, product and produce aggregation and flexible delivery logistics, we can address our community food needs in nimble and resilient ways.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The Building Rural Hunger Free Communities with Accessible Market Models project is designed by the Appalachia Accessible Food Network (AAFN) to expand community access locations in five counties of Appalachia Ohio: Athens, Morgan, Meigs, Perry and Washington. AAFN is a collaboration of healthy food access non-profits, healthcare and educational institutions, and community stakeholders formed to accelerate the distribution of local foods into Appalachian Ohio communities by strengthening access, production, aggregations, distribution, and consumption for a fair food system in Appalachia Ohio. The proposed CFP Project is submitted by lead partner, the Appalachian Center for Economic Networks that serves as the fiduciary agent and employer of record for the AAFN. The AAFN 10-year focus on market channels has included Farm to School initiatives, Country Fresh Stops in rural villages' convenience stores and gas stations, the Community Food Initiatives' Donation Station, Mobile and Farmers Markets, Veggie Van and multiple Buying Club models. Critical to our success are the linkages between the anchor organizations' facilities: The Chesterhill Produce Auction, The Rural Action Incubator Farm, The ACEnet Food Ventures Center and Food and Farm Enterprise Center. The two-year scope will:Goal 1: Identify current assets, needs, and potential for market expansion in five targeted counties to address food access to healthy food in rural townships and villages. Complete assessments using existing data, community focus groups, site visits, and past and present OSU surveys. Assessments will clearly indicate which communities lack consistent access to local food, preferences and estimated size of the potential expanded customer base, current capacity of farmers and vendors, and the scope of new food access points and market sites that could be developed through the project.Goal 2: Pilot and promote two years of mobile and pop-up markets and new distribution partnerships which link the non-profits, food hubs, farmers' markets, healthcare partners, community advocates and farmers to assess potential for growth and sustainability, and identify capacity needs including training and infrastructure. The project activities will expand locations and partnerships with healthcare institutions as the partners work to implement the lessons learned.Goal 3: Develop and integrate a strategic plan for a multi-system network utilizing data collected with the assistance of the OSU team, to accelerate access through mobile, pop-up, and distribution-based local produce access sites, including a map of the most promising pilot sites inventory of participating farms, opportunities for beginning farmers, and an on-going plan and funding strategy for capacity-building and training for AAFN partners and producers.
Project Methods
The Building Rural Hunger Free Communities with Accessible Market Models project will evaluate opportunities to use decentralized market programs (DMPs)--including mobile farm markets, pop-up farm markets, Buying Club programs that deliver locally grown produce to central locations, and local food distribution programs in partnership with healthcare providers--to connect local farmers with consumers throughout Athens, Meigs, Morgan and Washington counties. Community engagement has always been baked into the networks approach and process to define goals and the anticipated outcomes. Low-income representation in the AAFN occurs in a variety of processes and platforms: Nourishing Networks, Community Conversations about Food Access, and most recently a 2020-2022 multi-disciplinary partnership made up of four OSU colleges to study, survey, publish and disseminate findings from and to community stakeholders. Co-design work is also impacted by low-income board representation on the ACEnet, CFI and Rural Actions Boards. The Nourishing Networks process has the most longevity in creating the stakeholder community feedback loop.In the Nourishing Networks program, trained facilitators host workshops that provide data on food security, introduce food justice concepts, discuss barriers to and strategies for food access, and support community-led follow up projects. The workshops are built on curriculum from the West Virginia University Food Justice Lab and tailored to the specific context of our Ohio host communities. Nourishing Networks programs create powerful collaborative spaces that engage diverse stakeholders and build a strong community-based network of food justice advocates. Our first workshops in 2021 attracted 50 registrants and 100% of participants felt prepared to talk about hunger and food insecurity with fellow community members and planned to become more involved in actions to increase food security. In 2022-2023, Nourishing Networks workshops at four different community sites engaged 46 Athens County residents and 43 Washington County residents, with 90% reporting feeling more prepared and knowledgeable to address food security in their community following the workshop.Participating communities launched locally-led food access projects, including the continuation of a beekeeping project in Nelsonville, the distribution of 60 garden boxes to Glouster residents to grow their own produce, the establishment of new community garden areas at the Federal Valley Resource Center Community Food Pantry and Hope Drive Apartments, and a Coolville educational series on budgeting, preserving, and cooking with fresh, local ingredients. Inspired by the power of these conversations in our communities, CFI also partners with interested organizations to train others on how to host their own Nourishing Networks workshops and discuss food insecurity wherever they are. CFI has trained over 45 partner organization staff and community members through a series of Train the Trainer workshops since 2021, including state program staff from OSU Extension SNAP-Ed, farmers market managers, staff from local health departments, and team members from the Foodbank.Appalachian Ohio local food systems have become a driving force in the region's economic revitalization. We never underestimate the "word of mouth" that is part of our Appalachian culture. A recent example of how engagement occurs: StephanieKendrick a councilwoman in the Village ofAlbany shared "Like so many of the rural communities outside of the City of Athens,Albanyresidents must travel out of the village to have access to fresh produce. I am reaching out to see if there is a possibility that our community can benefit from the Veggie Van? I firmly believe that if you could set up near that coffee shop, you would sell enough produce to make the trip to our beautiful village worth your while."Through surveys, partnership development, and market pilots, the project team will establish a data-informed county-wide network of DMP sites through which to increase sales for participating farmers and food access for rural consumers. This project lowers the bar to vendor participation and reduces the financial risk for growers to experiment with selling at multiple community sites by coordinating opportunities through a central strategic group that can share transportation, coordination, and promotion responsibilities, and by offering accessible pathways for growers to participate in the network of community programs and sites. By building a collaborative network with opportunities for synergy and shared resources, this project will widen the ecosystem of selling opportunities for local farmers and encourage more growers to participate in the expanded DMP ecosystem. By focusing efforts on developing markets and delivery sites in small communities, this project also increases local food access for consumers who would otherwise be limited by lack of transportation.The data collection through AAFN has demonstrated that a collaborative strategy to increase mobile markets, pop-up markets, produce delivery, and healthcare partnerships offer expanded market opportunities for farmers. To make these opportunities accessible to more of our local farmers, however, we need to create a collaborative structure and effective support system. This will include documenting best practices and building community networks, to make it easy for local growers to participate even with limited time and staff capacity. This documentation also positions and empowers the region's farmer markets in Athens, Meigs, Perry and Washington counties to function as hubs and facilitators for these decentralized market program (DMP) distribution models.