When asked how his industry was affected by the COVID-19 crisis, Denny Donnovan, Sales Manager at Fresh Kist Produce, said, “Oh gosh. Nobody I know has been around for anything like this before. Shock isn’t the right word; we were totally dumbfounded.” He compared the effect on the agricultural industry to that of the Great Depression and the World Wars. When restaurants shut down in March, Fresh Kist Produce lost 60 percent of their business. They turned to trying to sell to grocery stores, most of which already had contracts with other growers. A surplus of product at such low demand lowered their prices, and because Fresh Kist Produce deals mostly with produce with a short shelf life—broccoli, celery, cauliflower, and iceberg lettuce—they were not left with many options. Denny says that Fresh Kist Produce’s partnership with The Farmlink Project has allowed them to keep their crews working and has saved them from laying off hundreds of harvesters. He explained that when farms are unable to harvest produce, it’s not just the harvesters that lose work—“the whole wheel stops turning.” In addition to reinforcing harvesters’ jobs, the support that The Farmlink Project provides “keeps fertilizer companies busy, cooling and loading docks busy, and the whole wheel turning.”
Thus far, The Farmlink Project has facilitated the delivery of 567,500 pounds of Fresh Kist Produce. Through 17 different deliveries, the produce has reached seven food banks across California, with a total of approximately 4.5 million servings. Fresh Kist Produce is composed of two family farmers and six other growers that bring produce daily, all of whom, according to Denny, are “civic minded” and very excited to be working with The Farmlink Project. We look forward to continuing to redirect surplus produce to communities in need and contributing to keeping the wheels of the agricultural industry turning.
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.
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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.
< BackWhen asked how his industry was affected by the COVID-19 crisis, Denny Donnovan, Sales Manager at Fresh Kist Produce, said, “Oh gosh. Nobody I know has been around for anything like this before. Shock isn’t the right word; we were totally dumbfounded.” He compared the effect on the agricultural industry to that of the Great Depression and the World Wars. When restaurants shut down in March, Fresh Kist Produce lost 60 percent of their business. They turned to trying to sell to grocery stores, most of which already had contracts with other growers. A surplus of product at such low demand lowered their prices, and because Fresh Kist Produce deals mostly with produce with a short shelf life—broccoli, celery, cauliflower, and iceberg lettuce—they were not left with many options. Denny says that Fresh Kist Produce’s partnership with The Farmlink Project has allowed them to keep their crews working and has saved them from laying off hundreds of harvesters. He explained that when farms are unable to harvest produce, it’s not just the harvesters that lose work—“the whole wheel stops turning.” In addition to reinforcing harvesters’ jobs, the support that The Farmlink Project provides “keeps fertilizer companies busy, cooling and loading docks busy, and the whole wheel turning.”
Thus far, The Farmlink Project has facilitated the delivery of 567,500 pounds of Fresh Kist Produce. Through 17 different deliveries, the produce has reached seven food banks across California, with a total of approximately 4.5 million servings. Fresh Kist Produce is composed of two family farmers and six other growers that bring produce daily, all of whom, according to Denny, are “civic minded” and very excited to be working with The Farmlink Project. We look forward to continuing to redirect surplus produce to communities in need and contributing to keeping the wheels of the agricultural industry turning.
Fresh Kist Farms
California
When asked how his industry was affected by the COVID-19 crisis, Denny Donnovan, Sales Manager at Fresh Kist Produce, said, “Oh gosh. Nobody I know has been around for anything like this before. Shock isn’t the right word; we were totally dumbfounded.” He compared the effect on the agricultural industry to that of the Great Depression and the World Wars. When restaurants shut down in March, Fresh Kist Produce lost 60 percent of their business. They turned to trying to sell to grocery stores, most of which already had contracts with other growers. A surplus of product at such low demand lowered their prices, and because Fresh Kist Produce deals mostly with produce with a short shelf life—broccoli, celery, cauliflower, and iceberg lettuce—they were not left with many options. Denny says that Fresh Kist Produce’s partnership with The Farmlink Project has allowed them to keep their crews working and has saved them from laying off hundreds of harvesters. He explained that when farms are unable to harvest produce, it’s not just the harvesters that lose work—“the whole wheel stops turning.” In addition to reinforcing harvesters’ jobs, the support that The Farmlink Project provides “keeps fertilizer companies busy, cooling and loading docks busy, and the whole wheel turning.”
Thus far, The Farmlink Project has facilitated the delivery of 567,500 pounds of Fresh Kist Produce. Through 17 different deliveries, the produce has reached seven food banks across California, with a total of approximately 4.5 million servings. Fresh Kist Produce is composed of two family farmers and six other growers that bring produce daily, all of whom, according to Denny, are “civic minded” and very excited to be working with The Farmlink Project. We look forward to continuing to redirect surplus produce to communities in need and contributing to keeping the wheels of the agricultural industry turning.
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