By Mary Elizabeth Kidd
Mary Elizabeth Kidd is the Director of Communications at Georgia Organics.
Example of Family Farm Share weekly seasonal contents. Photo by Kimberly Della Donna.
LAUNCHING FAMILY FARM SHARE
In September 2021, Georgia Organics announced a new program: Family Farm Share (georgiaorganics.org/familyfarmshare). Family Farm Share is funded by the Georgia Department of Early Care and the Atlanta Falcons Youth Foundation to address childhood food insecurity for children ages birth to five in communities across Georgia.
Georgia Organics’ Family Farm Share team is made up of staff members representing each facet of Georgia Organics work: Director of Programs Suzanne Girdner and Kimberly Della Donna, Kimberly Koogler, and Lena Enciso from the Farm to School program, as well as Lauren Cox, who leads Farmer Services, and Director of Communications Mary Elizabeth Kidd.
The program launched with a pilot in Waycross (Ware County) as a collaboration with local partners and key players “on the ground” to ensure that Georgia Organics can facilitate and support a program that will live on in each community and will hopefully create a model that other cities and towns can replicate.
HOW IT WORKS
Family Farm Share will activate and connect local networks of early care & education centers, local food organizations, and nearby farmers to deliver an affordable weekly farm share sold on-site at early care centers.
The program aims to strengthen local food economies, communities' connection, and nutritional access for families with young children.
The Waycross Family Farm Share Pilot is comprised of partners Action Pact, WayGreen, Inc., Ware Children’s Initiative, and Georgia Organics.
This program represents goals that have been laid out in our new five-year strategic plan: organic farmer prosperity, resilient local food movement, investment in local farmers and food systems, and organizational strength.
With partnerships like this, there is a clearer, more achievable path to a more resilient Georgia food system.
EVOLUTION OF GEORGIA ORGANICS’ COMMUNITY FOOD SYSTEMS WORK
The Family Farm Share program marks a transition from our six-year running Georgia Food Oasis outreach initiative which sunset in Dec. 2021.
Similar to the Family Farm Share program, Georgia Food Oasis focused on identifying and bolstering local partnerships that connect families and farmers across Georgia communities.
Georgia Food Oasis (GFO) communities—Augusta, Columbus, Rome, Savannah, Walton County, and Waycross—continue to demonstrate the collaborative power when farmers, educators, nutrition leaders, and local food advocates connect to share and grow knowledge, resources, and opportunities.
Thanks to pre-existing GFO relationships like WayGreen, Inc. And Action Pact, Waycross represented a perfect launchpad for Family Farm Share.
FAMILY FARM SHARE: UPDATES AND WHAT’S NEXT
In November 2021, members of Georgia Organics’ Family Farm Share team met in Atlanta for the long drive to Waycross.
During the visit, we met with family advocates and surveyed families at Action Pact’s Head Start campus to determine their current and aspirational habits with fruits and vegetables, locally-grown and store-bought. Some of that data is shared below.
Part of the Georgia Organics Farm to School team’s mission is to also support serving and education on local food, so we visited classrooms with squash snack cups and spoke to an adorable crowd of interested young veggie-lovers (and non-veggie lovers!). We also hosted two training sessions with teachers and school nutrition staff to begin ongoing education on local food sourcing, serving, and learning.
Action Pact Family Advocates along with Family Farm Share liaison Carol Clarke, Training & Literacy Specialist at Action Pact (second from left). Photo by Mary Elizabeth Kidd.
Farm to School Director Kimberly Della Donna knows these partners are ready for the challenge: “Action Pact is very ready to successfully implement the Family Farm Share Program. Carol Clark, our key contact, is an experienced Farm to ECE Champion, familiar with Georgia Organics and a natural over-achiever. She has infectious, positive energy and loves her work. She's got the Family Advocates invested, who are the primary contacts with families and meet with them once per month.”
Farmer Services Director Lauren Cox meets with Roger and April Westover of Greenway Gardens and Connie Oliver of WayGreen, Inc. to discuss seasonality, availability, and preferences for Family Farm Share families. Photo by Mary Elizabeth Kidd.
Members of the Georgia Organics team visited Waycross small organic farmers to discuss how Family Farm Share will allow them to connect more deeply with their community members and to determine the logistics that will make this a profitable program for them.
Key takeaways from team members confirm that this is a group of willing and able partners ready to create something powerful for the Waycross food system.
GETTING TO KNOW THE COMMUNITY
This program will be open to Action Pact community members: Head Start families, teachers, administrators, and neighbors. Through surveying this audience, the team begins to gather data on their habits and preferences for fruits and vegetables.
Currently, we’re working with farmers to determine how we can best align the desires of the community with their current and potential growing plans.
Surveying Action Pact families to determine preferences along with a squash snack “thank you.”
ACTION PACT FAMILIES’ FOOD HABITS & PREFERENCES
Survey results from 102 respondents in the Action Pact Head Start campus community:
On average, respondents answered that their family eats fruits and vegetables 5.39 days per week.
When asked “If cost, availability, or other limits were not a factor, how often would your family eat fruits and vegetables?” respondents answered that they would eat fruits and vegetables an average 6.4 days per week.
For the question “Would you be interested in a Family Farm Share that includes the following items” we gave an answer of “never” a score of 0, “sometimes” a score of 1, and “yes, all the time” a score of 2. The following table contains the average score for each item.
For the open response question on what vegetables families eat most often, there were 41 unique items provided and 102 respondents. The following table shows the top five vegetables from at least 20 respondents.
When asked what fruits and vegetables families would most like to see in their weekly farm share, the following top five, respectively:
Fruits: apples, bananas, strawberries, grapes, and oranges
Vegetables: green beans, broccoli, corn, squash, and cabbage
Through the ongoing collection of feedback and preference data from involved participants in the Waycross Family Farm share, we’ll be able to grow and evolve the program for sustainability and replicability.
We look forward to sharing our challenges, wins, and key takeaways as we grow this collaborative effort to bring delicious local-farmer-grown vegetables and fruits to families across Georgia!
Stay tuned and please consider supporting this work by becoming a member or donor at georgiaorganics.org/staylocal!
Thriving greens at Family Farm Share participating farm Greenway Gardens. Photo by Mary Elizabeth Kidd.