How your Growing for Good donations are making a difference
Dear co-op members and shoppers,
Thank you. Together we have raised more than $325,000 for the Growing for Good program since shoppers began rounding up purchases at PCC cash registers last year, supporting local farms and food access. In a time where funding is threatened or has already been cut for many essential programs, Growing for Good continues to support more people each year. That is directly because of your continued generosity and belief that we can and should support our community’s farmers and food banks, taking actions from rounding up purchases at PCC to adding donation cards to your purchases to directing individual donations to this cause. You have helped 20+ farms deliver more than 200,000 pounds of fresh produce to 25 hunger relief organizations since Growing for Good was founded in 2020.
What is Growing for Good
Growing for Good, a partnership between Neighborhood Farmers Markets, Harvest Against Hunger and PCC, began in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. It connects Washington’s small farms to hunger relief agencies who make wholesale purchases from the farms.
Growing for Good was established with a few key commitments that make it unique.
Growing for Good is farmer-centered:
Farmers receive Growing for Good payments in the spring, allowing them a rare opportunity where money is available up front to invest in seeds, soil amendments and equipment before the growing season begins. This helps farmers stabilize their businesses to serve all customers throughout the year.
In some cases Growing for Good is just the start of the relationships. Some food banks have added extra orders from their own budgets to purchase from the farms they were matched with, and farms have donated extra produce to the food banks when they can.
“We like and need the early season income. We appreciate the flexible nature of what we can send throughout the season according to what is most abundant each week. It’s very nice to get paid for growing food for folks who otherwise wouldn’t have access.”
Growing for Good is community centered: Food banks are matched with farms who are able to produce the foods that their clients most need, which can vary from community to community. We work hard each year to develop matches based on what the agency requests and what each farm is growing. Whether this means carrots and asparagus or gai lan and amaranth, this fresh, high-quality, nutrient-dense, local produce is greatly appreciated by food banks and hard for them to otherwise purchase.
“In general, the elders are so happy to receive culturally familiar produce. It brings a smile to their faces when seeing the beautiful produce in which they can cook healthy, traditional and nutritious meals at home.”
Growing for Good is people-funded: Your community donations allow an unusually human-centered approach to funding and program development. This means we can address individual challenges as they arise and that we try not to overburden grantees with bureaucracy. It feels like we have never needed that more than we do now.
“Community funding is the key to Growing for Good’s amazing impact in building a stronger, more resilient, and more reliable food system for both small-scale local farmers and hunger relief efforts. This program allows deep relationships to grow and flourish, and continues to provide nutritious food that is so critically needed to combat the long-term impacts of hunger in our community.”
An Invitation: Grow along with us
As we plan for Growing for Good’s future, we are adding opportunities for you to connect directly with the program. Community sponsors will receive a biannual Growing for Good newsletter giving you a deeper look into the impact of your donation. Sponsors at each level will receive a Growing for Good gift (along with any gift offered at a prior level), see here for details.
We hope many of you will welcome a direct and consistent connection with the program, but this note is primarily to say thank you. You have made this work possible, and your generosity has already brought stability to local farmers and increased access to local foods at hunger relief agencies. Because of you a successful program now exists. Look here for full details on the participating farms and agencies, and for more opportunities to help it thrive. We also invite you to watch the video below to show some of the impacts of Growing for Good.
With thanks,
Rachel Tefft, Senior Manager, Community Food Systems, PCC
Jennifer Antos, Executive Director, Neighborhood Farmers Markets
David Bobanick, Executive Director, Harvest Against Hunger