Food Access
Program

Leer en Español

The Food Access Program facilitates the intentional production and distribution of food grown at the Hudson Valley Farm Hub.

The goal of the program is to use this abundant land to feed our local community by providing vegetables and grains to our mission-aligned donation and wholesale partners.

We do this by engaging with our donation partners in the local emergency feeding system.

Our vegetables are grown year-round and can be found in food pantries, low-cost farm stands, community fridges, free meal programs and other food access programs throughout the Hudson Valley. We also partner with cultural institutions to support their programs and events celebrating the importance of diverse foodways and cuisine. 

We are beginning to work with a few select mission-aligned wholesale customers.  These enterprises are working to increase access to minimally processed local foods including flour, tortillas, fresh-cut vegetables and potentially ready-to-eat meals. These products will be found at farmer’s markets, local retailers and public schools. We support these local agricultural and food initiatives, such as the newly established Milestone Mill, as they expand opportunities for growers and increase local food offerings.

“Hunger is not an issue of charity, but an issue of justice”

Additionally, we are engaged in Food Justice working groups advocating to increase food security by reducing systemic barriers.

We do this by providing vegetables to direct service work and actively participate in long-term systems change. We are proud members of the Hudson Valley Food Systems Coalition, Eat Well Kingston, Farm to Institution New York State (FINYS), and the Kingston Emergency Food Collaborative.

The Food Access Program also contributes to staff engagement. We value everyone who lives and works on the farm and strive to create additional engagement opportunities on our farm for our staff. We have an abundant staff garden and are working to increase on-farm experiences and opportunities centered around seed education, growing food, nutrition and culinary exploration.

The Farm Hub is pleased to introduce flour, corn meal, beans, tortillas and tortilla chips made from organic ingredients grown at the Farm Hub and processed with co-packers around the state. These products are being sold under the newly created Milestone Mill brand. Milestone Mill is part of a new non-profit enterprise under development with NoVo Foundation and currently being incubated at the Farm Hub. Read more here

Growing with the Grain

This short documentary film on the small grains research trials continues to screen as part of Oceans 8 Films `Hope on the Hudson 2’ series. The trials are a collaboration between the Farm Hub and Cornell University and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County to gather data on a variety of grains and share their findings with area farmers interested in adding grains into their rotations and moving into the local grains market.

Reports

*The following reports and links may or may not be available in more than one language

Contact

For general information and food donation requests:
Katrina Light, Food Access Program Manager, [email protected]