Appalachian Harvest Network

http://foodshedguide.org/cases/appalachian-harvest-network/

"Overview

“How can we create a system that puts money in farmers’ pockets and puts good food on the table in an environmentally sustainable way?” asks Anthony Flaccavento, the executive director of Appalachian Sustainable Development. His answer, for dozens of farmers in southwest Virginia and northeast Tennessee, has been a program called the Appalachian Harvest Network.

Appalachian Harvest Network has helped local farmers transform their old rows of tobacco, once their signature crop, into thriving organic fruit and vegetable fields. And it has brought these farmers into a new distribution system with major retailers and grocers in the region. Appalachian Harvest Network values action over research and opens new economic opportunities for local farmers.

Every week AHN communicates requests from area produce buyers to its more than 70 member growers who bring their harvest to AHN’s organic facility, where it’s washed and packaged. Once orders are finalized, AHN delivers produce to more than a dozen stores, including Whole Foods Market, Food City, Ingle's, Ukrops (now operating as Martin's Food Markets) and Kroger who in turn reach more than 650 sites. Produce seconds from AHN go to food pantries. This keeps money in the local economy and makes healthful food more accessible -- especially important in a region with high obesity and poor health indicators.

To the residents in southwest Virginia, AHN has been invaluable. It has helped tobacco growers, who might have abandoned farming, adopt a new strategy to continue farming. It has improved the quality, and sales, of its regional buyers. And by keeping more dollars circulating in the region, it has contributed to the region’s economic wellbeing."...

More about the Appalachian Sustainable Development program:
http://asdevelop.org/