Locally Grown Availability for February 19th, 2014

Hey Local Food Lovers,

I’ve been a little slow in getting my weekly messages out lately. One excuse is Locally Grown is busy, busy, busy with some new projects this year that should really make the market bigger and more interesting this next year and in the year’s ahead.

First on this list, the Locally Grown Clarkesville location is now formerly part of the SNAP food stamp program and accepts EBT! Based on the recommendation of a community member we applied back in September and were eligible to receive a free EBT machine as part of a federal grant awarded to Georgia. If our experiment with the program goes well we hope to expand EBT to both Tiger and eventually a new Gainesville location in the near future.

Access to fresh, local and nutritious food should be something that everyone in our community is aware of and has access to. Our challenge in the coming months is to successfully reach out to SNAP program recipients and explain how Locally Grown works and encourage their participation. This is where we could really use the help of our local community. If you have connections with some of our area agencies, or have ideas of some promotional campaign efforts that would help EBT folks (that’s the name of the cards that are swiped) find us please let us know! There’s also a great program in Georgia called Wholesome Wave which raises charitable gifts that allow a dollar for dollar match for all SNAP purchases at select farmers markets. In 2013 they raised $170,000 increasing EBT farmers market purchases to $340,000. Teri Parker and some other volunteers for Locally Grown are going to help look into how to make this new aspect of our market a success. If you’d like to get involved just let us know.

We are set to receive SNAP NOW so if you know someone who would like to participate, please show them how to order online and we’re all set to swipe their card when they come to market (for any food item of course). We hope to see our very first EBT customer soon!

In a similar vein, a week from today Locally Grown will be submitting our first grant that if received will really help us strengthen our expansion into the Gainesville area. The project would allow us to hire a new market manager, launch a marketing campaign, and engage new farmers in participating in the market. It would also allow us to invest in some items such as wireless tablets so that we never have to print out paper again for order fulfillment. When you arrived we’d simply look at your order on a tablet, click if it was correct, or make the corrections to your account right then and there if you are owed a credit, etc. The grant is called a Value Added Producer Grant through the USDA. It’s been a big undertaking, but it’s also helped us sharpen our collaboration and start to look ahead at how to make it bigger and stronger. After all, we want all of North Georgia to grow, sell and eat more LOCAL FOOD in the coming years, not less and we think the Locally Grown model is a great way to do this.

Ok, so that’s why I was a little late with the message this week. I do hope you heeded Chuck’s advice to try Ohana Farms new pork products this week. I know I personally am gonna do that and can’t wait to sink my teeth in.

Warmer days not far away now. Here’s hoping that farmers have lots of big plans to plant lots of yummy food this year!

EAT WELL and THANKS!
Justin in Habersham
and
Chuck in Rabun