Driven by a passion to address the escalating hunger crisis in the U.S., a young and dynamic organization comprised mostly of college students emerged in the midst of the pandemic. Ben Collier, Will Collier, James Kanoff and Aidan Reilly, co-founders of The Farmlink Project, recognized the growing disparity between food waste and empty food banks.
So Farmlink went to the source — the farmers — and after about 100 phone calls, the organization received a donation of 12,000 eggs.
“That was the first big move,” said Dylan McElhinney, Food Program ROOT Fellow at The Farmlink Project. “From there, [the organization] just started taking action, renting trucks and transporting produce and other food items to nearby food banks.”
Since its launch, The Farmlink Project has moved over 100 million pounds of food that would have otherwise gone to waste.
The Farmlink Project is a 501(c)(3) and works on a full donation model, generally with food that is already harvested and/or packaged, and donations can receive $.03-$.07 in tax benefits per pound of food donated. The program operates nationwide, and growers can participate in a one-time donation or schedule recurring contributions.
Either way, it’s a quick exchange. There are no contracts nor long-term partnerships required in working with The Farmlink Project.
“We come in, and we come out,” said McElhinney. “We sort of take care of everything.”
In instances where farms have large quantities of food for donation but are without sufficient labor for harvest, Farmlink can arrange for labor, sometimes itself donated. For smaller farms lacking both labor and large food quantities, the organization can send a truck to combine donations, thus being conscious of carbon emissions, or will coordinate with local food banks.
“We’ll facilitate a connection between that farm and a nearby food bank to get that sorted so that food doesn’t go to waste,” said McElhinney.
Naturally, seasonality strongly determines donations, with melons, onions, and leafy greens being among the most common. A cabbage farm was recently donated to The Farmlink Project, providing the nonprofit now with an abundance of cabbage.
The organization has received food donations from some recognizable names, including Taylor Farms, Dole, Owyhee Produce, and numerous other farms of all sizes. The Farmlink Project is also the subject of a new documentary, Abundance: The Farmlink Story.
To learn more about donating surplus yields, click here.
Main photo: CEO and a co-founder of The Farmlink Project, Ben Collier, standing in a packing facility in Texas.
Photos: The Farmlink Project
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