Field Trips & Farm Aid

Farmer Foodshare’s staff and board have been BUSY this month! 
We’ve been spending a lot of time out and about in our communities – communities of place AND practice.
We were lucky enough to be invited to Farm Aid in Raleigh, where we connected with lots of folks from our region, talking to them about our mission, and educating them about North Carolina food system facts.  2 of our amazing board members volunteered to make the exhibit happen, in addition Katina, one of our community partners with Feed Durham – thanks y’all!
Our Executive Director, Kelly, also joined the Durham County Soil and Water Conservation District for a Durham Farm Tour this month.  Farmer Foodshare’s Executive Director sits on the committee that reviews AED grants to area farmers, so she was thrilled to see some past and current projects in action at farms! Stops on the tour included small farms, community food projects, nurseries and agritourism destinations
Kelly was also excited to join program partners, Root Causes, in Minneapolis this month to participate in a panel presentation on how “food is medicine” programs can address social determinants of health in our community.
Lastly, Farmer Foodshare was honored to attend Governor Cooper’s announcement this week that NC will receive a significant investment from the USDA to fund local food purchasing at schools in our state.  It’s fitting that Durham Public Schools (Bethesda Elementary, specifically) were chosen as the location of this press conference since DPS has been a leader in our state for local food procurement over the years.  We’re really looking forward to connecting our 42-member Farmer Network to these purchasing opportunities in the coming seasons – and to seeing locally grown farm products on the plates of students of ALL income levels here in the Triangle!