On April 16, 2020, a handful of friends drove 10,800 eggs in a rented truck from Trafficanda Egg Ranches Inc. to Food Finders in Southern California, hoping to make even a small difference for those in need at the start of the pandemic. Only two days later, on April 18, they helped connect 50,000 pounds of onions from Owyhee Produce in Oregon to Santa Monica’s Westside Food Bank. Starting The Farmlink Project with just a rented U-Haul and a few friends, the founders of this organization had no idea at the time what The Farmlink Project would become. Almost a year later, our internal team has grown by the hundreds, our network of external support has extended far beyond what we ever thought was possible, and we’ve continued to do what we do best - get surplus produce to people who need it.
How We’ve Gotten to Where We Are
The Farmlink Project has been incredibly lucky in securing and maintaining partnerships nationwide that have allowed us to scale our operations up in such a short period of time. Food Finders, our fiscal sponsor, has made it possible for us to accept the donations that fuel our work under its 501c3 status. Since The Farmlink Project’s first week, Uber Freight has been an enthusiastic supporter of ours and ended up covering 98% of The Farmlink Project’s deliveries in 2020, much of which was provided for free through Uber Freight’s Move What Matters campaign. November brought a partnership with Chipotle, which allowed customers nationwide to round up to the dollar to support The Farmlink Project when ordering online. The round-up campaign yielded a total of 1.23 million dollars in donations. The Food Recovery Network has been an incredibly valuable resource in helping us to grow our external team.
The way we move food is simple. We identify surplus produce, find a food bank that will take it, organize transportation, and provide aid to farmers. Since the beginning, our Farms Team has reached out directly to farmers to source surplus produce. Our Hunger Outreach Team identifies communities in need, and our Deals Team coordinates the logistics of getting this food to food banks and then to people. Our Growth Projects aim to expand the services we offer farmers, improve the way we source produce, and create a more sustainable future for our organization as well as the food system. We make an effort every day to stay connected with the parties we work with and to understand their needs. Each of our internal volunteers satisfies a weekly “Doug Hess” standard, named for one of the first farmers we worked with in recognition of his unwavering passion and hard work, by attending a team Power Hour, volunteering at a local farm or food bank, or helping out at a Farmlink Project delivery.
What We’re Up to Today
To date, we have facilitated the delivery of almost 30 million pounds of food. Our organization has expanded into Mexico, where we’ve moved more than 250,000 pounds of produce since the start of 2021. We’ve raised more than five million dollars since our founding, and, as we are 100% volunteer-run, each individual donation goes directly to minimizing food waste and alleviating food insecurity. On March 25th, The Farmlink Project Co-Founders James Kanoff and Aidan Reilly were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, Service Act Award, which they accepted on behalf of the team as a whole. As James said in an organization-wide meeting, “This award does not just celebrate what we have accomplished thus far––it speaks to what we have left to do and emphasizes the faith the Medal of Honor Society has that we will go on to make an even greater impact.”
The Future of The Farmlink Project
Our mission, strategy, and culture have remained intact throughout our year of incredible growth. As an organization, we are passionate, ambitious, and scrappy. We pride ourselves in being a group of young people who, like our friends at the Food Recovery Network, care deeply about the issues we fight for every day. Our long-term goal is to put ourselves out of business—to help create a new food system in which our work would be obsolete. The Farmlink Project will continue the work we’ve done this year in tackling the systemic issues in the food supply chain, and by building and implementing infrastructure, we hope to eradicate the issues of food waste and food insecurity entirely. We continue to push ourselves to look at these problems from all angles so that we can find creative, innovative ways to solve them.