The purpose of "scaling food hub impact serving bipoc and new american farmers in south, east, and central texas," is to ensure the long-term success of socially disadvantaged farmers by sustainably…

The Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service awarded a $380,251 Project Grant to Plant It Forward under the Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion Program. The grant will support Plant It Forward's efforts to ensure the long-term success and financial self-sufficiency of its food hub, which serves socially disadvantaged farmers in central, east, and south Texas. Key deliverables include developing a business plan to close the food hub's budget deficit within five years and reach 75% of baseline funding by year three. The plan will assess incorporating a tiered pricing model into the food hub's CSA program to address local food access disparities. The grant will also fund a multi-year marketing strategy and campaign to increase local food consumption in the Houston region and expand direct-to-consumer market opportunities for participating farmers. Outputs include increasing the number of socially disadvantaged producers served from 13 to 25 and total sales by 48% to $1.45M over three years.

The purpose of "scaling food hub impact serving bipoc and new american farmers in south, east, and central texas," is to ensure the long-term success of socially disadvantaged farmers by sustainably strengthening the capacity of the plant IT forward (PIF) food hub. Its successful CSA program serves over 400 families per week; however, PIF's current financial model requires supplemental non-program income to sustain food hub activities. Reliance on non-program income creates growth challenges for PIF, and more fundamentally, poses a long-term risk to farm businesses relying upon PIF for sales opportunities. Additionally, the project addresses severe operational strains to PIF precipitated by the covid-19 pandemic. Key project objectives include the creation of a business plan which enables long-term financial self- sufficiency of the PIF food hub, and which assesses incorporation of a tiered-pricing model into the CSA, as a novel solution to local food access disparities. The business plan informs a marketing strategy and multi-year campaign that aims to increase local food consumption in the houston region. These strategies result in expanded direct-to-consumer market opportunities for socially disadvantaged growers operating in south, east, and central texas. Short-term outcomes include the creation of a business plan which enables PIF to close its food hub budget deficit within 5 years (reaching 75% of baseline by year 3),increasing the number of socially disadvantaged producers served by the PIF food hub from 13 to 25,and increasing total sales by 48%,to $1,450,000 over a 3-year period.