Springfield Community Gardens has received funding from the U.S. Agricultural Marketing Service’s Local Food Promotion Program to develop, coordinate and expand local and regional food business enterprises to help increase access to and availability of locally and regionally produced agricultural products.
This project addresses the needs of small-scale, under-resourced and socially disadvantaged farmers in the region by providing direct lines and networks to commercial and institutional sale opportunities. By providing refrigerated transportation, the project will support the processing, aggregation, distribution and storage of local and regional food products, assisting farms in meeting institutional buying standards and providing indirect producer-to-consumer marketing.
The project will impact an anticipated new and existing 25 SCG network participating farmers/producers, 18 institutional/network buyers, 300 additional local/regional farmers who will have access to institutional food safety workshops, and 130,000 consumers reached within the community at large through an advertising campaign designed to promote local food.