Jefferson County Farmers Market to Food Bank Program
Food After the Market Ready for the Food Bank
Chimacum Corner Store Employee helping farmer Laura Llewellyn of Chimalow Produce
One of the best things about living in Jefferson County, Washington, is the fresh produce, and we want our clients to get the very best! That’s where our amazing partnership with the Jefferson County Farmers Markets (JCFM) comes in!
This year we launched the Jefferson County Farmers Market to Food Bank Program. Here's how it works: when a participating farmer doesn't sell everything at market, the Jefferson County Food Bank Association (JCFBA) purchases the surplus at a wholesale rate. It's simple, but the impact is anything but small. We support local farmers and make sure our neighbors receive the very best our community has to offer.
The idea took root through conversations between Interim JCFBA Executive Director Betsy Davis, Board Vice President Sonja Mathews, and JCFM Executive Director Amanda Milholland. Together, the three asked a powerful question: How do we get more local food to more people? Out of that conversation, the program was born.
Amanda, who previously led farm-to-food-pantry work herself while on the JCFBA board, is thrilled to see the idea come full circle. "Seeing the food banks purchasing local produce is really exciting to me," she shared.
More Than Just Enough
In food security work, it's easy to focus only on quantity. Making sure there's enough food to go around. But quantity alone isn't the whole picture. This program is built around a different question: what if we focused on quality, too?
It matters for a lot of reasons, but to share a few:
When food-purchasing dollars flow outside the community, we lose the chance to strengthen the very place we're trying to serve.
By investing locally, those same dollars can support our farmers, our economy, and our neighbors all at once.
Good, fresh, local food isn't a luxury. It's a critical piece of real food access.
A Program Built with Local Farmers in Mind
Farmers operate on notoriously slim margins, and asking them to simply donate unsold produce isn't sustainable. It's a loss they often can't absorb. This program gives them something better. Options. Farmers can donate, sell to the food bank, or do a mix of both, whatever works best for their business.
Laura Llewellyn, Chimalow Produce, has been instrumental in this effort, helping organize donations at the end of each farmers' market day and making the process smooth for everyone involved. Now JCFBA purchases the food, and it makes a huge difference for our local farmers. “I would love to see this program grow!” Laura shared. “To know that everything I bring to market can be sold one way or another is truly transformative. It encourages me to bring more to market that I would otherwise leave unharvested in our field. Meaning more produce is getting out into our community. Recently, a Wednesday Market got canceled due to high winds. My crew and I had already harvested 30lbs of mixed loose greens destined for that market by the time the cancellation was announced. It was such a relief to know that I could sell that product to the food bank. At a discounted wholesale price, but that was so much better than a total loss. We are so grateful to the food bank for this partnership.”
The result? Farmer engagement in both donations and local food bought has grown. There's real relief in knowing that most of their harvest will find a home, whether at the market or through the food bank. That security makes it possible for local farmers to pay living wages, reinvest in their land, and keep growing, literally and figuratively.
As Amanda put it, “This is what it looks like when a community truly lifts up the people who feed it.”
The best news? The farmers AND the clients love it.
PS - If you’re interested in donating to this program, head here.
