Farmlink Mexico partnered with Grupo Paisano, and the farmers this business supports, to deliver over 30,000 pounds of limes to Banco de Alimentos (BAMX) Veracruz this past December. The food bank then distributed these limes to people in Boca de Uxpanapa, Mexico. Following this delivery, there were several other deliveries of limes and papayas, facilitated by Farmlink Mexico, from Grupo Paisano to BAMX over the course of December and January. Overall, Farmlink Mexico has helped deliver almost 256,000 pounds of fresh fruit to Mexicans in need since its inception!

Who has made all this happen? The Farmlink Mexico team consists of less than ten members, including Andrew Hojel and a couple of other internal members of The Farmlink Project, as well as a few who operate from Mexico, according to Andrew. He further explained the team’s collaborative partnership with Grupo Paisano and Banco de Alimentos:

“We work really closely with Grupo Paisano—so they notify us of surplus and then we negotiate a good price. We then book a trucking company to move that to the nearest BAMX foodbank! Then we keep in touch with the food bank over WhatsApp for updates...They tend to send pictures and explain where they sent the food to in terms of communities.”

The Farmlink Project is thrilled to have a team making an impact in the food rescue space internationally and helping to feed food-insecure families in Mexico. We are grateful to the Farmlink Mexico team, as well as Grupo Paisano and Bancos de Alimentos de México, for making this possible. Don’t forget to check out our Farmlink Mexico webpage!

_{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.