Volunteer Assisted Growing the Table

Growing the Table (GTT) is a philanthropic initiative managed and executed by the Office of Kat Taylor (OKT), and fiscally sponsored and administered by the Tomkat Ranch Educational Foundation (TKREF). With roughly 37% of California farmers being women and 20% being socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers (SDFRs), GTT prioritized purchasing from small-scale, organic/regenerative diverse farmers during the pandemic, and distributing their high-quality produce to food-insecure people in nearby communities. Its goal was to create stronger, more diverse, and resilient food distribution networks within each region.

From 2020 to 2022, GTT funded and administered 22 temporary food distribution programs in 25 California counties. Programmatic regions were selected based on food insecurity rates, diversity of farm stakeholders, agricultural production, population size, and the presence of community-based service providers. Stakeholder groups engaged in these regional programs include farmers, food hubs, community-based distribution partners, and food recipients. Facilitating connections between those groups proved to be empowering and mutually beneficial: farmers benefited from GTT’s crop purchases, which provided a degree of economic stability through the pandemic; food hubs and distributors expanded their expertise and trust with their respective communities; and food recipients gained free access to healthy food during a time of food insecurity.

GTT’s regional programs helped to scale partners’ existing food aid efforts and provided grants to distributors who either had not previously distributed food or had not yet been able to do so with fresh, organic produce. Part of the program involved adhering to a standard per-box price range that farmers agreed to as fair, considering their costs and market rates. This price included the boxes’ labor, administration, and delivery to the distribution partners. Agreements encouraged partner food hubs to prioritize buying culturally-relevant produce to promote food sovereignty and reduce the waste of unwanted or less desirable food items. Boxes often included bilingual meal recipes. For people without kitchen access, such as those experiencing homelessness or wildfire evacuees, pre-made healthy meals using fresh produce as primary ingredients were distributed in lieu of produce boxes.

Mitch Holley, a GISCorps volunteer in Georgia, was selected to assist GTT. Mitch was tasked with building ArcGIS Online web maps for internal project management. Those web maps included point locations of potential farm candidates for the program. GTT purchased farm location data from Farm Market ID for the initial outreach effort. As the project grew, GTT began collecting data through their Farm Partner Survey, Farm Box Recipient Surveys, and Partner Surveys. Those datasets were cleaned, standardized, analyzed, and loaded into ArcGIS Online to provide insights on connections among farmers, hubs, and recipients. The use of GIS allowed GTT staff to visually represent and evaluate the reach of the program for farmers, recipients, and distributors. Mitch also provided training to the OKT Research Director on interacting with the ArcGIS Online interface.

GTT’s effort will continue to benefit from Mitch’s involvement and assistance. Their work has revealed the interconnection of trusted community partners, who hold regional contextual knowledge regarding food supply chains and food insecurity, so they can reimagine and recreate healthy systems of food sourcing, aggregation, and distribution. Under the Biden Administration, the USDA has begun to focus its efforts on bolstering regional stakeholders by investing in under-served producers and re-regionalizing America’s food system. California has made similar equity-minded investments, such as funding Technical Assistance for Underserved Farmers and the California Underserved and the Small Producers Program. Programs like USDA’s Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA) and debt relief for farmers who have suffered discrimination are strong indications that more investment may come at the state and federal levels.

A big part of GTT’s work, outside of directly helping farmer networks and the food insecure via the direct benefits of the program, is encouraging and advocating for the expansion of programs and investments that support America’s small agricultural businesses. Mitch provided GTT with the ability to visualize their work and to better show its impact. GTT now has a better general understanding of how GIS works, and how it can be utilized to support similar future efforts.

“GISCorps was an integral partner in supporting, mapping, interpreting, and visualizing our work to help small farmers and food-insecure people during the pandemic and it’s aftermath. We are extremely grateful for the hard work and professionalism of our GISCorps volunteer. Mitch Holley consistently met any needs and helped us address and challenges related to the project’s GIS components. He was knowledgeable, flexible, patient, and provided us with sound advise on a regular basis. There were periods of time where we were focused on executing the direct service elements of Growing the Table where GIS was not actively being utilized. Mitch has been exceedingly patient and flexible through these times, and willing to dive in when needed. We cannot speak enough to his professionalism, hard work, and flexibility related to this project.” – Nick Ellis, Director of Research at Office of Kat Taylor

Project completed.