Recently, Whitney Sewell, our community outreach and program manager, sat down with Ashley Schaeffer Yildiz of One Meal a Day for the Planet — a movement to switch a daily meal to one that’s plant-based — to discuss Farmer Foodshare’s work.
PARTNER PROFILE: HOW FARMER FOODSHARE IMPROVES ACCESS TO HEALTHY FOOD IN NORTH CAROLINA
by Ashley Schaeffer Yildiz
In many parts of the country, communities in need have a hard time getting access to fresh, nutritious, healthy food. And yet at the same time, not far away, you’ll find local farmers who are struggling to find a market for their produce.
You don’t have to look any further to see evidence of this gap than North Carolina. Even though North Carolina is the 8th largest agricultural producer in the country, it’s the 9th hungriest state — where 1 in 5 children and 1 in 8 adults suffer from food insecurity. That’s one reason OMD has launched a pilot project in North Carolina to get more plant-based foods served in restaurants and K-12 school cafeterias. Another organization that recognizes the need is Durham-based Farmer Foodshare.
“The food system is really not functioning to support either end — the producer, or the people in need,” Community Outreach Manager, Whitney Sewell says.
The 10-year-old organization was founded so that “the farmers and the people who eat their food would be at the same table,” Sewell says. “We’ve designed a new food system.”