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Success Stories

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A photo of a man and a woman holding packages of cheese and smiling is inset against a photo of a long driveway bordered by trees and fields with a "cattle crossing" sign on the right side.

VAPG Provides a Buffer for a Maine Organic Creamery

Co-owners of Balfour Farm in Pittsfield, Heather and Doug Donahue have adapted to many changes as dairy farmers. First, they switched careers and began farming in 2004. They learned about farming and experimented with different breeds. Next came a move a move from New York to… [Read More]
God's Pantry Food Bank Mobile Pantry Program

Rural health care grant helps God’s Pantry Food Bank expand food delivery program

Food insecurity in rural Kentucky, depending on who you ask, is somewhere around 15 percent. That means about one out of every six households does not have access to affordable nutritious food, putting them at increased risk for conditions like obesity, diabetes, heart disease,… [Read More]
Richard Berkfield of Food Connects stands in a large, shallow square hollow in a cement floor

Essential Storage Expansion Helps Food Connects Create More Capacity

Food Connects is a Brattleboro, VT-based nonprofit that ‘builds healthy families, thriving farms, and connected communities’ by delivering regional food and providing educational and consulting services aimed at transforming the local food system. The organization has grown… [Read More]
A tractor in a field with workers planting plants

Love Continues to Grow at Lovefood Farm

In 2015, Lovefood Farm launched their farm off one rented acre with a small Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), Saturday farmers market and a neighborhood farmstand. Lovefood spent a few years at the Farley Center Farm Incubator, which allowed them to eventually purchase 30… [Read More]
A farmer looks at produce for sale at the Barreras Farm Market.

Feeding the Body, Enriching the Mind

The motto of the Barreras Family Farm and Farm Market is “Feeding the Body, Enriching the Mind.”  Mariel and Anthony Barreras, along with their eight children, bring this motto to life. Together, they run the farm and store – and do so much more. The Barreras family… [Read More]
Chris Wall and his family in their cherry orchard

Keeping it local works best for Utah orchard farmer

Wall Brothers Orchards has been in the fruit growing business for more than 50 years, growing apples, peaches, and cherries in Payson, Utah. The highest quality fruit is selected to sell to distributors and consumers in Orchard Brothers Farmer’s Market. Every growing season a… [Read More]
VAPG sheep

Rural Development grant helps market, grow Kentucky Spring Lamb

The bleating of sheep when they hear the feed bucket can be deafening. “BAAAAA! BAAAAA! BAAAAA! BAAAAA! BAAAAA! BAAAAA!” Like a nearby car horn or a low-flying jet, the sound can stop conversations cold. To a sheep producer, that is the sound of money, and more and more… [Read More]
Photos of cooperative local produce

Buying local made easy - Yellowstone Valley Food Hub

The Yellowstone Valley Food Hub (YVFH) is a cooperative of farmers and ranchers that came together three years ago to increase the community's access to local food. It started as an online ordering platform and quickly grew into an enduring business. Today it provides the… [Read More]
Staff from Back Yard Farms hold packages of apple chips that were  just produced and ready for sale using the freeze-drying method

What a great idea, how come nobody thought of this before?

The workers at Backyard Farms in Vado, New Mexico have barely begun another day of freeze-drying produce when another truck carrying hundreds of pounds of apples arrives to deliver its load. Since Backyard Farms began freeze drying food it’s become a beehive of activity. All… [Read More]
True Chesapeake Oyster Company

USDA Partners with One Small Farm to Make Enormous Impact

Deep beneath the cool waters of the largest estuary in the United States, rests a hidden world teeming with limitless possibilities. Chesapeake Bay is considered a national treasure, with a watershed stretching 64,000 square miles, touching six states, and impacting more than 16… [Read More]