Our Farm to Neighbor program builds community resilience and supports farmers. The program purchases fresh fruits and vegetables from local farmers and distributes them to hungry neighbors through local pantries and meal sites.
In 2018, this pilot program was started through generous donations from local area Rotary Clubs, Cherry Republic, the Orten Foundation and various individual donors. We distributed roughly 8000 lbs of fresh local food in 2018 to pantries and meal sites. Foods included parsnips, carrots, radishes, turnips, asparagus, tomatoes, green beans, pears, acorn squash, butternut squash, apples, purple and golden beets, cabbage.
We are currently expanding this program through a generous grant to build community infrastructure from the Rotary Foundation in Traverse City, in partnership with Goodwill Food Rescue and The Teaching Kitchen at the Long Lake Culinary Campus.
The Northwest Food Coalition is an association of 37 food pantries, 22 meal sites, and 7 baby pantries in a six county area: Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkalska, Leelanau, Wexford. It was convened by the Northern Michigan Community Action Agency in 1994.
We are seeking funds to buy local food in 2019. Our fundraising goal in $25,000.
Donations are fully tax deductible and are received by our fiduciary, the Northwest Michigan Community Action Agency.
Donations can be made via our PayPal link above or checks can be made out to Northwest Food Coalition with F2N in the memo field and mailed to
Farm to Neighbor Program
Northwest Food Coalition c/o NMCAA
3963 Three Mile Rd
Traverse City, MI 49686
