An Introduction to Farms Together

Today, Farms Together is a statewide network that includes nearly 500 farms, many dozens of food banks and community based organizations (CBOS), a few dozen more local food hubs, and many other individuals and organizations. Between ourselves and all of these partners, in 2024 together we delivered 6,000,000 pounds of fresh locally grown produce to food insecure Californians in every part of the state. But in March 2020, where this program has its origins, it was much more modest in size. In our first week in partnership with Pie Ranch, we distributed just 500 pounds of produce sourced from just four farms. Even then though, we knew we had landed on something special.
With a grant from the USDA Farmers to Families Food Box Program that began in Spring 2020 and lasted until the fall of that year, we scaled up our program at Pie Ranch within weeks. By August, we were delivering close to 21,000 pounds a week and had expanded our network of farms from four to over 80. In this first iteration, Fresh Approach and Pie Ranch partnered with amazing Bay Area food system leaders like Veggielution, Edible Schoolyard, Gil Tract Community Farm, Sanzuma Farms, Spade & Plow Farm, and Frog Hollow Farms.

After the suspension of the Farmers to Families program, in 2022, the state of California received an $88 million grant from the USDA for a reimagined version: the Local Food Purchasing Assistance (LFPA) project. And with this, Farms Together was born. Farms Together is a collaborative effort jointly led by Fresh Approach, the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF), and the California Association of Food Banks (CAFB). In our program, we have addressed many of the concerns that local food systems leaders from around the country raised about the Farmers to Families Food Box Program.
In this version of the program, we prioritize sourcing from as many small, socially disadvantaged family farms (BIPOC, LGBTQ+ Owned, Veteran owned, women-owned) as possible; we remove lowest price bidding as a determining factor in contract awards; and we set eligibility requirements that support the long term resiliency of local food systems.
Current State of the Project

At its core, Farms Together facilitates the streamlined distribution of locally grown foods from small and diverse producers to food insecure communities all around the state. We do this by contracting with mission-driven food hubs (local food distributors) who in turn buy directly from small farms and deliver that food to regional food banks and community based organizations (CBOs). By utilizing this hub and spoke model, we are able to effectively spread the funding. In 2024, we contracted with 32 food hubs who in turn purchased food from 488 producers and delivered it to nearly 40 food banks and CBOs around the state.
Fresh Approach and CAFF’s role is to work closely with the vendors, who are the food hubs and aggregators, to ensure they are implementing a successful project. We ensure that vendors are working with primarily socially disadvantaged farmers, and that the program is successful for their long-term operations. Together with CAFF and CAFB, we support farmers that have been historically excluded from these sales channels in navigating them, growing their businesses, while ensuring their food is distributed to underserved communities.
It’s nourishing for everyone: the farmers build skills as business owners and the families lacking access to freshly grown food get to eat locally grown fruits and veggies.
We believe this is the road to building a more equitable, resilient food system.
While this project is funded through July of 2026, we hope to have it continue beyond this period of time to nourish communities across the state of California.