By connecting small local growers with local food pantries, FarmLink promotes relationships between farms and their direct community. Pantries receive nutrient-dense fresh food, often picked that same day from local farms. Access to these farm fresh foods provides dignity to neighbors utilizing the food pantry. These connections create or reignite relationships between people in need and the food they eat, with farmers working hard to provide fresh food relevant to those in their own community. The relationship built between the small local grower and their local food pantry will promote equitable access to nutrition beyond the growing contract.

Each year, large amounts of perfectly edible produce are discarded because of minor imperfections. This not only wastes food but also results in lost income for farmers. FarmLink connects our hunger relief partners directly with local farmers, purchasing their produce at a fair price and redirecting it to community members who need it most. This approach strengthens the local food system, reduces waste, and supports the people who grow our food.

FarmLink 2025 Recap

In 2025, Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin purchased $528,163 in fresh produce, meats/proteins, and eggs/dairy products, totaling over 258,000 pounds of food, including 101 distinct produce varieties and 13 different types of protein including eggs, dairy, meat, and tofu. This food was grown through 83 small to mid-sized Wisconsin producers and distributed to 76 pantry partners.

Leveraging Senator Baldwin Appropriations

Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin was a recipient of the 2024 US Senator Baldwin Appropriations on behalf of increasing access to fresh fruits and vegetables for food-insecure families and individuals across Wisconsin. The funding was administered in the following ways in order to maximize the number of farmers who received orders, while also stretching dollars to reach our most underserved pantry partners and counties:

• NEW HMong Partner Organization: Received direct funding for food purchasing and technical assistance support to coordinate directly with Hmong farmers across Green Bay and Appleton to arrange pickups directly with pantry partners.
• Fresh Purchasing: Full truckloads of potatoes, onions, and apples were ordered along with dairy, eggs, and meats by Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin staff. These foods were made available to our pantry network for free on our ordering platform.
• Contract Growing: The largest portion of funding was administered through contracts given directly to historic FarmLink farmers as well as to the Wisconsin Food Hub Cooperative (WFHC). Around the time we were connecting with the WFHC to design this program, federal funding from the Wisconsin Local Food Purchase Assistance Program (LFPA) had just run out. This program was instrumental in supporting purchasing from primarily small to mid-sized farmers and farmers of color who are historically disadvantaged. Further, all the food from the LFPA program was donated to the emergency food system, so our pantry network was experiencing lower fresh food availability. We utilized the Senator Baldwin funding to fill the gap and continue supporting the relationships formed through the LFPA program between farmers and pantries.

How Did We Get Here?

FarmLink began as a joint effort between Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin and the Medical College of Wisconsin in 2016 with the aim of improving the health and wellbeing of Wisconsin communities. The process of doing so involved increasing access to fresh fruits and vegetables at pantries by building economically viable and socially responsible relationships with local farmers.

Partnership with NEW HMong

In previous years, we’ve utilized FarmLink funding to partner with NEW HMong, an organization which specializes in providing occupational training to Hmong folks in the Appleton and Green Bay areas. With native Hmong speakers on staff, they were able to support Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin in connecting with 14 Hmong growers and facilitating purchasing as well as distributions to 13 network food pantries on a weekly basis throughout the growing season. The Hmong farmers had a wide range of experience from very new farmers on leased land, to highly experienced farmers looking for new markets. In addition to providing fresh fruits and vegetables to food pantries, this year’s funding also supported the pilot of a Hmong Elder Box program, LubKawm.

Steve Vue, pictured below, has been running his farm since 2002, primarily selling at local farmers’ markets. However, he finds this challenging due to unpredictable weather and fluctuating demand. In recent years, he’s been working to transition to wholesale markets for more stability through contract fulfillment. Without support from organizations like Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin and NEW HMong, overcoming language barriers and building necessary relationships would be difficult. Through FarmLink, Steve gained valuable experience in wholesale markets, learning how to properly pack, label, wash, and deliver produce. He is eager to continue growing in this new market setting and hopes for ongoing funding to support his efforts.