Dear Friends of Local Food Hub,

Thank you for visiting our 2017 Impact Report. We hope the stories you read here help shed light on the value that supporting your local food system has for our community’s health, economy, environment, and the sense of place that makes Central Virginia special.

I also want to share with you some of our exciting plans for the coming year, which your support has made possible. 

Food access
A new delivery vehicle dedicated to our food access programs – secured with community support — will allow us to expand the Fresh Farmacy program to as many as 60 additional low-income health patients, and make sure that farm-fresh food gets to them as efficiently and safely as possible.

Growers helping growers
Our new Grower Advisory Committee is helping shape our programs for helping farmers get a leg up in the new local food economy. We’re especially excited about this year’s peer-to-peer workshop program, and on the food safety resources we’ll be bringing to our partners.

New products
We’ve formed new partnerships with 11 area producers. They make products such as organic tortillas made from non-GMO, Virginia-grown corn; cheese and yogurt made from pastured cows raised in the Shenandoah Valley; and organic, antibiotic free chicken. With this expanded range of produce, grains, eggs, honey, and more, there is now a local option for just about everything in your kitchen.

Our board, staff, and partner producers are invigorated and excited for a new year, and we look forward to seeing you. Stay tuned for our event schedule, and don’t hesitate to contact us if you want to visit our warehouse for a tour and a chat.

Warmly,

Kristen Suokko
Executive Director 

Innovations in Agriculture.

Each fall, we honor two of our partner farms that have demonstrated creativity and innovation in order to grow or expand their farm business. Our partner farms are incredibly resourceful, and tenacious about keeping their farming costs low and production outputs high. Although all our partner farms impress us with their resourcefulness, this year we honored Phantom Hill Farm and Sunnyfield Farm .

Kathryn Hanks and Chris Pohl of Phantom Hill Farm are both under age 30 and farming on less than an acre in Louisa County. They designed an automated watering system and microgreen bed that reduced human labor needs and increased efficiency. Phantom Hill Farm is one of our top growers for our food access programs, growing nutritious greens year-round in their unheated greenhouses along with a plethora of other vegetables. This was their second time winning our competitive Innovation in Agriculture Award.

Marina and Petr Dronov immigrated to the United States from Russia in order to be near family. After farming part time for years, they finally purchased their own land to found Sunnyfield Farm. Despite speaking English as their second language, with the help of Local Food Hub, they successfully navigated complex federal and industry jargon to obtain a premier food safety certification. This has enabled them to sell into new markets through Local Food Hub, including UVA Hospital and Student Dining, James Madison University Dining, and major distributors like Sysco Foods.

In 2017, they created a bin hauler (pictured above, driven by Petr), a drivable tool that enabled them to easily maneuver between crop rows while harvesting corn, peppers, or watermelons in large quantities. Previously, they were walking the rows with handheld buckets to harvest the fruit, which meant they had to walk back to their washing station each time they filled two heavy buckets. The bin hauler increased their efficiency and capacity by more than seven times, and made it a lot easier for Petr and Marina!

Increasing options for local throughout the year.

In 2017, we took several exciting steps towards developing a more diverse, year-round product line. Thanks to newly formed partnerships, we now offer organic tortillas made from non-GMO, Virginia-grown corn, cheese and yogurt, made from pastured cows raised in the Shenandoah Valley, and organic, antibiotic free chicken. These partners have helped us offer more options for local that go beyond seasonal fresh fruits and vegetables. With our range of produce, grains, eggs, honey, and more, there is now a local option for just about everything in your kitchen.

Unlike many traditional distributors, Local Food Hub does not pass the cost of business to its partner producers. Inclusive in our services of distributing local food, we handle all marketing, liability insurance, customer requirements, and order minimums. By not charging for these services, we are creating more opportunities for small, local producers to access the market and stay in business.

Patients eating their way to health.

Ronette Hill is a patient in our Fresh Farmacy: Fruit and Veggie Prescription Program. Not only is she now eating fresh vegetables that she would not have eaten before starting the program, she has reduced her reliance on medications, and loves making fresh salads with her daughter.

Our Fresh Farmacy: Fruit and Veggie Prescription Program is a partnership with area health clinics that “prescribes” patients a biweekly supply of fresh fruits and vegetables, grown by our partner farms. The prescriptions include recipes and educational programs that help to encourage home cooking and develop familiarity with new foods, and seeks to develop a culture of healthy eating.

Community partnerships not only make our food access programs possible, they ensure we’re going where we’re needed the most. In 2017, we organized a discussion amongst community health leaders, including the UVA Employee Wellness Program BeWell, our local Health Department, and the UVA School of Nursing. The group analyzed the intersections of income, health statistics, and food access, and found that low-income communities often had poor health with minimal access to fresh, healthy food. We have taken steps to bring our programs to these areas in Charlottesville, and continue to participate in community-wide discussions about addressing equity and justice through food. 

Partnerships also play a critical role in program expansion. Through the partnership with UVA Employee Wellness Program BeWell, we were able to offer Fresh Farmacy to 95 UVA employees. And, we were able to offer Fresh Farmacy to Charlottesville’s Region Ten – a nonprofit organization that provides a robust array of services to adults with mental health, intellectual disability, and substance addition needs. 

Local food and farming stories from our community, and across the nation.

It’s been an exciting year to work in the local food system. On a local level, we have seen more of our community recognizing the importance of sourcing locally. We hosted a record-breaking crowd of more than 200 people at our warehouse for our annual Community Food Awards Ceremony, where we honored 11 of our partner farms and customers for their commitment to small family farms and healthy communities.

We gained the attention of local media outlet Cville Weekly, which prominently featured our Fresh Farmacy program on the cover of their weekly newspaper and in a feature story about the positive impacts the program is making in our community. This movement is not limited to Charlottesville. Across the country, people are realizing the importance of a food system with family farms at the center, and affording everyone access to fresh, healthy options. As part of our goal to be a repository of information on local food, here are some of our favorite informational resources from the past year.

C-VILLE Weekly, on our Fresh Farmacy Program.

A national look at the impacts and benefits of fresh farmacy programs, in Pennsylvania and California, by National Public Radio.

Public school districts from across the nation that are going above and beyond federal nutrition standards to serve students the healthy food they need and deserve, by The Food & Environment Reporting Network’s Ag Insider.

The harsh impact of a changing climate on the southern peach crop, which was felt by peach growers here in Virginia, by New York Times.

USDA’s Running a Food Hub: Lessons Learned from the Field report, featuring Local Food Hub.

A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm, by The Washington Post.

Food Tank’s best farm and food books to read, from the memoirs of an Asian-American peach farmer to the best manual for permaculture design.

The Federal Reserve’s Harvesting Opportunity: The Power of Regional Food System Investments to Transform Communities, a compilation of research, essays, and reports by community development experts around the country that demonstrates the impacts of local food systems and economies.