The Good Acre
Report date
August 2021
What has been most instrumental to your progress?
Partnership - Partners include the Hmong American Partnership (HAP), Lakewinds Food Coop, the Latino Economic Development Center (LEDC), Mill City Farmers Market (MCFM), Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA), The Food Group, and The Good Acre (TGA). All of the LEAFF partners were involved from the start of the project and worked to build trust and meaningful collaboration amongst internal and external stakeholders. While TGA had existing relationships with many BIPOC farmers, we were not engaged with many of the farmers primarily working with farmers markets. HAP, LEDC, and MCFM worked to recruit farms and guide them through the application process. Representatives from HAP and LEDC also assisted in produce acceptance during delivery days, which helped build a trusting relationship between the farmers and TGA staff.
These partnerships distributed the decision-making power for this program, helping to maintain equity and diverse perspectives while creating and implementing LEAFF. These partnerships also increased funding opportunities and community building; we were all able to introduce our communities to one another.
These partnerships distributed the decision-making power for this program, helping to maintain equity and diverse perspectives while creating and implementing LEAFF. These partnerships also increased funding opportunities and community building; we were all able to introduce our communities to one another.
Low barriers - Farmers reported that the low barrier to entry and participation made LEAFF a very attractive market for produce sales. None of the participating farmers reported concerns or difficulty with the application process and felt there was adequate support from partner organizations. Farmers also reported that having a set pricing and packing list upfront was beneficial. The ability key for most farmers was the ability to deliver whatever they had on hand without having to meet certain minimums or notify LEAFF in advance as well as the ability to sell large quantities of specific items (i.e. cucumbers). While not the intention of the program, many of the participating farmers were older and they or their families reported LEAFF felt like a safer environment to make sales compared to the farmers markets due to decreased exposure to people. Supplying produce boxes was also beneficial to farmers as this was a newer requirement for some of the farmers who had not previously engaged in wholesale.
Connection to supports - Because we ran LEAFF out of TGA’s warehouse, farmers had the opportunity to connect with on-farm technical assistance as well as alternative wholesale venues. Farmers also had the chance to meet other farmers in a space where there was no competition and could ask questions of one another. There were multiple instances of farmers exchanging contact and growing information. As farmers reached their maximum sales to LEAFF we were able to route them to the Wholesale and Farm Share Managers who were able to make purchases. TGA has been able to create contracts with 12 farmers who were new to TGA through LEAFF last year. In total, those 12 farmers account for over $200,000 in planned sales. Many of the farms participating in contract sales with TGA this year are expanding their farms and businesses, a benefit that we had hoped would come to fruition but could not have imagined the magnitude. David, Farm Program Manager, has also had the opportunity to visit some of the farms new to TGA in a traditional TA format but has also been working with some farms on business support to help them meet their financial goals.
Key lessons learned
Staffing - Because LEAFF was a response to the crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic and uprisings related to the police murder of George Floyd, the program was created as it was implemented. Partnerships were critical in ensuring LEAFF ran as smoothly as it did but it was quickly determined that managing this program is a full-time position. This was not a failure and was overcome through teamwork, but did put some strain on staff to ensure all produce was received, sorted, and distributed quickly and safely. This also included delivery logistics. The Food Group was overwhelmed by the need faced by their organization and was understandably unable to provide delivery support. As the season progressed a standard route was developed and we were able to distribute produce to all sites that requested support. With additional planning and financial support, TGA has hired a full-time, Farm Program Specialist to manage LEAFF. The Food Group will be managing some of the LEAFF drop sites for the 2021 season which will alleviate the transportation stressors on TGA’s staff and vehicles. LEAFF continues to be a collaborative effort with shared decision-making power and input from farmers.
Pricing - Towards the middle of the season we discovered that some of LEAFF’s pricing was more competitive than other wholesale opportunities which meant that distributors who had intended to purchase from those farmers were shorted. While we want to encourage wholesale distributors to increase their payments to farmers, LEAFF is not intended to act as a competitor. During this past winter, we convened a group of farmers who participated in LEAFF last year to help set pricing standards that remained equitable but didn’t drive competition. This resulted in increasing the prices for some items and lowering them for others and we anticipate we will not face the same concerns as last year especially as farms are moving back to contracted sales.
Reflections on the community innovation process
Collaboration was the most important component of the community innovation process in successfully implementing LEAFF. By collaborating with organizations that have expertise in different areas of the food system as well as organizations lead by the communities LEAFF was working to support, we were able to gain rapid momentum to respond to an immediate need. This also decreased duplication of services or work and allowed for a more targeted effort. Shared decision-making lead to increased transparency for everyone involved including the farmers and communities we all work in because. We believe that prioritizing shared decision-making helps create programs that are equitable and builds trust. The deep trust that partners held with one another meant that we could still move quickly even with a large number of voices at the table.
Progress toward an innovation
Based on the evaluation significant progress has been made in addressing the community need in a more effective and equitable way than previous approaches. 88% of the farmers who participated in the post-season survey said they had little or no food waste on their farm. Paying full price for excess produce incentivized farmers to harvest as much as possible. Despite their concerns for the 2021 growing season, interviewees did not indicate any plans to downsize. Instead, they talked about making tweaks to their crops to be more culturally responsive and adding some farm infrastructure; many emphasized that they would take more risk and expand if they knew they could count on LEAFF next year.
LEAFF inadvertently created a wholesale training program for farmers. Respondents reported new skills; 65% packaging for wholesale, 47% produce safety, 47% selling to wholesale, 35% pricing for wholesale, 24% how to write and track invoices, and 47% communicating with large volume buyers. We also had reports from hunger relief sites that they saw an increase in healthy eating because their clients were able to access high quality, culturally significant produce items.
LEAFF inadvertently created a wholesale training program for farmers. Respondents reported new skills; 65% packaging for wholesale, 47% produce safety, 47% selling to wholesale, 35% pricing for wholesale, 24% how to write and track invoices, and 47% communicating with large volume buyers. We also had reports from hunger relief sites that they saw an increase in healthy eating because their clients were able to access high quality, culturally significant produce items.
What's next?
The LEAFF partners have continued to meet and share decision making but the work is transitioning primarily to TGA with distribution support from The Food Group. The core group of partners will continue to engage on efforts not just related to LEAFF but additional needs in the food system. We convened a group of LEAFF farmers early in 2021 to adjust pricing so that it remained fair but did not cut out some of our partners like Shared Ground. Through grants and recruiting support from HAP, TGA was able to hire a Hmong staff person to lead LEAFF in 2021. LEAFF is well into its second season, having purchased over $100,000 of produce from 40 BIPOC growers and donated 67,000 pounds of produce to a dozen hunger relief partners. We are currently writing grants to sustain LEAFF as a long-term program at The Good Acre with additional emphasis on providing more TA to farms and exploring solutions to land access issues.
Because LEAFF addresses numerous issues we are confident that we will be able to continue to secure funding. We recognize that this program will continue to rely on philanthropic and government grant support.
Because LEAFF addresses numerous issues we are confident that we will be able to continue to secure funding. We recognize that this program will continue to rely on philanthropic and government grant support.
If you could do it all over again...
Prepare for long-term success. We had no idea that the impact of LEAFF would be so large both on an economic scale and in terms of systemic change in the local food system. Because of this, we did not set ourselves up as well as we could have to go into a second season with as much force. Had we known LEAFF was going to continue we would have dedicated more time to securing funding for a second season. As markets continue to be lower and drought wrecking havoc, it is critical that BIPOC farmers have access to as many markets as possible. While we have been able to approve 40 farms for up to $4,000 in purchases for the season, we have a waiting list of 20 more farms and farmers who have already reached their purchasing limit with the bulk of the harvest remaining.