Farm Link and Valent Pt 1
I’m Bob Larson. The pandemic has worsened a problem where millions of Americans find themselves struggling to put food on the table.And, early on, a group of solution-oriented college students got together to form the “FarmLink Project” that finds the food and gets it to the hungry.
Co-founder, and Brown University senior, Aidan Reilly says they’ve done so with corporate partners like Valent …
REILLY … “Valent has helped us with our virtual food drives so we’re able to contact farmers, develop relationships and ship food, all through our computers, cell phones, email. You know, this organization was started during the pandemic which means we were basically forced to have to learn how to do that. And, Valent is joining us in our effort to do so.”
So, where do they find the surplus food …
REILLY … “We work with all sorts of upstream producers and, you know, so that can be anywhere from on farm, to packers, to distribution warehouses, processing facilities.”
And, Reilly says having volunteers around the country, they can move quickly …
REILLY … “We’re extraordinarily flexible and our main goal is just taking any food that may be of the same quality that you might see on the supermarket shelves. Even if it’s ugly or misshapen, if it’s stuff people can eat then nobody around that farm should have to go to bed hungry. That’s kind of our ideology and our mission.”
Tune in tomorrow when Reilly shares more on the FarmLink mission and the post-pandemic work that now seems likely.