Prior to the fall quarter, Farmlink Project team member Audrey Slatkin had served as head of the Farms Research Team, but as team members returned to school and leadership shifted, she pivoted towards a new role—Director of People Operations. As Director of People Ops, Audrey became the internal voice of The Farmlink Project team and undertook the responsibility of managing the application and selection process for new members seeking to join the team.
Founded by a scrappy group of college students only eight months ago, The Farmlink Project had not had a formal application process in place for recruiting and interviewing applicants before Audrey took on this new role. She worked to create an accessible, involved, and comprehensive application process, beginning first by organizing information sessions to engage those interested in volunteering. These information sessions and applications began in late-October and early-November, and as Audrey described it, “from then on it was a full-on sprint.” Around that time, The Farmlink Project was featured on both CBS and Good Morning America, and our partnership with Chipotle began, catalyzing a steep increase in applicant interest. By the application deadline on November 30, 170 people had applied to join our team, and the difficult and thorough process of selecting new members from this competitive pool of qualified applicants began.
Audrey first read through the applications blindly, looking only at applicants’ educational background and professional experience and why they were interested in The Farmlink Project. She then read through the short answer part of the applications where applicants were able to showcase their voice and share how they could see themselves growing The Farmlink Project’s mission. “It was very inspiring to see how many people were inspired by this mission. People being so passionate made me feel even more proud of what we are doing here.” Audrey then worked with a group of team leads to conduct interviews and place accepted applicants on teams.
Sierra Fang-Horvath, head of the Social Justice Committee, was one of these team leads who aided Audrey in the interview process. Her vision is for the members of The Farmlink Project to “begin to more closely represent the communities and people we serve.” She is inspired by the diverse backgrounds and passion for change of our newest members. By incorporating voices that are often overlooked in the food system, she hopes that The Farmlink Project will be able to “systemically impact marginalized communities from the inside outward.” As The Farmlink Project continues to grow, it is our hope that we can amplify the voices of those from all backgrounds and that these 75 new members will prove invaluable in ensuring that The Farmlink Project becomes a sustainable and equitable organization for years to come.
The interview, placement, and on-boarding processes were chaotic at times in our virtual working environment, but ultimately led to the addition of 75 amazing new members to the Farmlink family, all coming from a wide range of backgrounds to join teams across our organization. New member Kyla was inspired to join the Farms Team after learning about The Farmlink Project through Instagram. During the application process, she met team lead Claudia, who decided that the Farms Team was the perfect fit for Kyla to pursue her passions! She is most looking forward to “making a continuous, daily impact and getting to meet new people.” Jackson, one of two new members to join the Impact Team, worked on a family farm in Vermont before joining The Farmlink Project and loves bringing stories about small-scale farmers to light. Jackson embodies the passion and ambition that drives The Farmlink Project forward and is looking forward to becoming a part of the tight-knit community of the Farmlink family.
We are incredibly grateful for the incredible work Audrey has done in spearheading our recruitment, application, and on-boarding processes and are thrilled to get to work with our 75 new members. An internal culture of passion, respect, and ambition is crucial to the success of The Farmlink Project, and as our organization nearly doubles in size, we strive to maintain these core values moving forward. Each new member brings a unique skill set and perspective that will reinforce The Farmlink Project values and allow us to tackle even larger goals as we move forward into 2021.
Objective 1 engages with wasted food before the retail level, mainly incorporating USDA and EPA actions to build out food storage infrastructure, increase food donation, and invest in research to prevent food loss at the packaging and transportation level. The most important inclusion in Objective 1 was an added paragraph spotlighting Section 32 as a critical part of the nation’s food safety net. Section 32, a longstanding part of the 1935 Agricultural Adjustment Act (one of the first Farm Bills), uses agricultural customs receipts to fund the large-scale purchase of surplus produce from farmers and its transportation to hunger-fighting charities, schools, and other recipients nationwide. This program keeps millions of pounds of produce out of landfills each year, compensates farmers for their work, and fights food insecurity. Its inclusion as a food loss solution is critical to minimizing on-farm food loss while supporting farmers and reducing hunger. Objective 1 also indicates that the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) data can be used to identify points of surplus, an important expansion of current methods. Still, we will continue advocating for Farmlink and other food rescue organizations with existing, diverse networks of farmers and other food suppliers to be incorporated at a national level to better identify and address points of surplus food.
Farmlink is particularly excited about a new prioritization within Objective 2: “All projects aimed at increasing food rescue and donation should assess the quality, nutrition and appropriateness of the food being rescued, not just the quantity (e.g., consistent with Indigenous food sovereignty).” Since Farmlink’s founding, one of our core values has been to prioritize and maintain dignity associated with charitable food distribution, and a new emphasis on quality, nutrition, and appropriateness, especially in terms of indigenous food sovereignty, is a critical step to ensuring that the strategy is fighting hunger in an equitable, open-minded, and just way.
Objective 2 also now has the EPA's commitment to use life cycle assessment techniques to evaluate food waste prevention strategies, the results of which will inform consumer campaigns and incentives. They have also committed to refining and expanding food donation and recovery infrastructure through the Excess Food Opportunities Map. Farmlink will continue to advocate for the inclusion of food rescue organizations with existing networks and relationships to help expand these tools.
These changes are great. But how’s it all going to be funded?
During the comment process, Farmlink, as well as other food rescue organizations and coalitions, raised critical questions about how the strategy would be funded and, as a result, which measures are feasible. In particular, we hoped for more clarity beyond the draft’s statement that the USDA would use American Rescue Plan Act and Inflation Reduction Act funds and the EPA would use Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds. Of the 86 programs or initiatives reviewed in the final strategy, only 15 are completely new programs announced in the strategy.
The other 71 are existing programs or initiatives that either already have a food loss and waste focus or that the national strategy has repackaged as food loss and waste solutions. While we had hopes of new, innovative programs being included in the strategy, the good news with these 71 programs is that most, if not all, are already funded, meaning that they are not reliant on an increasingly turbulent Congress for implementation. Of the 15 new programs, which included the EPA’s new consumer education campaign and several new cooperative agreements with land-grant universities, only 2 had specific funding mechanisms. It has become increasingly clear that food rescue organizations and other stakeholders in the food and agriculture space should not consider this strategy as a new rollout of FLW solutions, programs, and funding but rather as an evaluation of the current resources and solutions and how each can be most effectively utilized to achieve the strategy’s goals. In particular, the framing of many of USDA’s programs as FLW solutions offers opportunities to utilize existing funding, data, and infrastructure to solve one of the United States’s most pressing problems.
Whats next?
Now that we have the strategy, it’s time to truly take advantage of the opportunities it presents. In the immediate future at Farmlink, we’re excited to continue optimizing Section 32 as a critical on-farm food loss solution as we anticipate significant surplus recoveries in the fall. As we move forward, we continue to advocate for dignity with food distribution, emphasizing cultural appropriateness and quality in every pound of food we rescue. As outlined in our comments, food rescue organizations are critical stakeholders and thought partners for the agencies. Our inclusion in the strategy as such is an opportunity we are taking full advantage of to help guide federal action to support farmers, feed communities, and heal the planet.
< BackPrior to the fall quarter, Farmlink Project team member Audrey Slatkin had served as head of the Farms Research Team, but as team members returned to school and leadership shifted, she pivoted towards a new role—Director of People Operations. As Director of People Ops, Audrey became the internal voice of The Farmlink Project team and undertook the responsibility of managing the application and selection process for new members seeking to join the team.
Founded by a scrappy group of college students only eight months ago, The Farmlink Project had not had a formal application process in place for recruiting and interviewing applicants before Audrey took on this new role. She worked to create an accessible, involved, and comprehensive application process, beginning first by organizing information sessions to engage those interested in volunteering. These information sessions and applications began in late-October and early-November, and as Audrey described it, “from then on it was a full-on sprint.” Around that time, The Farmlink Project was featured on both CBS and Good Morning America, and our partnership with Chipotle began, catalyzing a steep increase in applicant interest. By the application deadline on November 30, 170 people had applied to join our team, and the difficult and thorough process of selecting new members from this competitive pool of qualified applicants began.
Audrey first read through the applications blindly, looking only at applicants’ educational background and professional experience and why they were interested in The Farmlink Project. She then read through the short answer part of the applications where applicants were able to showcase their voice and share how they could see themselves growing The Farmlink Project’s mission. “It was very inspiring to see how many people were inspired by this mission. People being so passionate made me feel even more proud of what we are doing here.” Audrey then worked with a group of team leads to conduct interviews and place accepted applicants on teams.
Sierra Fang-Horvath, head of the Social Justice Committee, was one of these team leads who aided Audrey in the interview process. Her vision is for the members of The Farmlink Project to “begin to more closely represent the communities and people we serve.” She is inspired by the diverse backgrounds and passion for change of our newest members. By incorporating voices that are often overlooked in the food system, she hopes that The Farmlink Project will be able to “systemically impact marginalized communities from the inside outward.” As The Farmlink Project continues to grow, it is our hope that we can amplify the voices of those from all backgrounds and that these 75 new members will prove invaluable in ensuring that The Farmlink Project becomes a sustainable and equitable organization for years to come.
The interview, placement, and on-boarding processes were chaotic at times in our virtual working environment, but ultimately led to the addition of 75 amazing new members to the Farmlink family, all coming from a wide range of backgrounds to join teams across our organization. New member Kyla was inspired to join the Farms Team after learning about The Farmlink Project through Instagram. During the application process, she met team lead Claudia, who decided that the Farms Team was the perfect fit for Kyla to pursue her passions! She is most looking forward to “making a continuous, daily impact and getting to meet new people.” Jackson, one of two new members to join the Impact Team, worked on a family farm in Vermont before joining The Farmlink Project and loves bringing stories about small-scale farmers to light. Jackson embodies the passion and ambition that drives The Farmlink Project forward and is looking forward to becoming a part of the tight-knit community of the Farmlink family.
We are incredibly grateful for the incredible work Audrey has done in spearheading our recruitment, application, and on-boarding processes and are thrilled to get to work with our 75 new members. An internal culture of passion, respect, and ambition is crucial to the success of The Farmlink Project, and as our organization nearly doubles in size, we strive to maintain these core values moving forward. Each new member brings a unique skill set and perspective that will reinforce The Farmlink Project values and allow us to tackle even larger goals as we move forward into 2021.
Bringing on Our Winter Team
Prior to the fall quarter, Farmlink Project team member Audrey Slatkin had served as head of the Farms Research Team, but as team members returned to school and leadership shifted, she pivoted towards a new role—Director of People Operations. As Director of People Ops, Audrey became the internal voice of The Farmlink Project team and undertook the responsibility of managing the application and selection process for new members seeking to join the team.
Founded by a scrappy group of college students only eight months ago, The Farmlink Project had not had a formal application process in place for recruiting and interviewing applicants before Audrey took on this new role. She worked to create an accessible, involved, and comprehensive application process, beginning first by organizing information sessions to engage those interested in volunteering. These information sessions and applications began in late-October and early-November, and as Audrey described it, “from then on it was a full-on sprint.” Around that time, The Farmlink Project was featured on both CBS and Good Morning America, and our partnership with Chipotle began, catalyzing a steep increase in applicant interest. By the application deadline on November 30, 170 people had applied to join our team, and the difficult and thorough process of selecting new members from this competitive pool of qualified applicants began.
Audrey first read through the applications blindly, looking only at applicants’ educational background and professional experience and why they were interested in The Farmlink Project. She then read through the short answer part of the applications where applicants were able to showcase their voice and share how they could see themselves growing The Farmlink Project’s mission. “It was very inspiring to see how many people were inspired by this mission. People being so passionate made me feel even more proud of what we are doing here.” Audrey then worked with a group of team leads to conduct interviews and place accepted applicants on teams.
Sierra Fang-Horvath, head of the Social Justice Committee, was one of these team leads who aided Audrey in the interview process. Her vision is for the members of The Farmlink Project to “begin to more closely represent the communities and people we serve.” She is inspired by the diverse backgrounds and passion for change of our newest members. By incorporating voices that are often overlooked in the food system, she hopes that The Farmlink Project will be able to “systemically impact marginalized communities from the inside outward.” As The Farmlink Project continues to grow, it is our hope that we can amplify the voices of those from all backgrounds and that these 75 new members will prove invaluable in ensuring that The Farmlink Project becomes a sustainable and equitable organization for years to come.
The interview, placement, and on-boarding processes were chaotic at times in our virtual working environment, but ultimately led to the addition of 75 amazing new members to the Farmlink family, all coming from a wide range of backgrounds to join teams across our organization. New member Kyla was inspired to join the Farms Team after learning about The Farmlink Project through Instagram. During the application process, she met team lead Claudia, who decided that the Farms Team was the perfect fit for Kyla to pursue her passions! She is most looking forward to “making a continuous, daily impact and getting to meet new people.” Jackson, one of two new members to join the Impact Team, worked on a family farm in Vermont before joining The Farmlink Project and loves bringing stories about small-scale farmers to light. Jackson embodies the passion and ambition that drives The Farmlink Project forward and is looking forward to becoming a part of the tight-knit community of the Farmlink family.
We are incredibly grateful for the incredible work Audrey has done in spearheading our recruitment, application, and on-boarding processes and are thrilled to get to work with our 75 new members. An internal culture of passion, respect, and ambition is crucial to the success of The Farmlink Project, and as our organization nearly doubles in size, we strive to maintain these core values moving forward. Each new member brings a unique skill set and perspective that will reinforce The Farmlink Project values and allow us to tackle even larger goals as we move forward into 2021.