Trumbull county and the greater mahoning valley is known by many for its rust belt designation after a dramatic decline in the manufacturing that once scattered along the mahoning river and brought…

Trumbull county and the greater mahoning valley is known by many for its rust belt designation after a dramatic decline in the manufacturing that once scattered along the mahoning river and brought prosperity to the region, but many do not realize that trumbull county is also an agricultural county with more than 1,036 operating farms as reported by the 2017 USDA census of agriculture. Despite that encouraging number, the vast majority are commodity farms producing feed corn, soybeans, and HAY. Recruiting and providing support to local food producers to participate in local markets that have the proper food safety and insurance mechanisms has been a challenge. Connecting local growers that are both selling to various markets or growing at one of the counties many community garden locations to resources so that they may overcome these challenges is crucial to expanding fresh food access in the mahoning valleytrumbull neighborhood partnership seeks to expand support, training, and resources available to local growers from the community garden to the small farm scale. The goals of this project include expanding farm business knowledge of growing and building a sustainable agribusiness, creation of a system where community members can share seeds and plant knowledge, increased access to local technical support resources for community gardeners and backyard growers, and connecting more farmers to local processing resources for process planning and business development. IT is through support like this that the local farming community can grow and work towards sustainability.