Our Harvest found out that they are recipients of a 2017 Local Food Promotion Program grant from the USDA (application submitted by Green Umbrella; Our Harvest and Ohio Valley Food Connection are subawardees):
"The Green Umbrella Regional Greenspace Alliance will bring together two food hubs in the region to increase producer sales, increase the number of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) certified or “Produce Rule” compliant farms and food hubs, and increase the consumption and access to locally-produced agricultural products by institutions and households. Specifically, it is intended to increase farm sales that market through local food hubs to $1.4 million; to provide farm safety planning to over 30 producers and 2 food hubs; and to increase consumption of local agricultural products to over 1,200 household and wholesale clients by the end of the project. To fulfill these outcomes, project staff will develop new institutional market opportunities by developing relationships with new large institutional clients, creating a customized crop plan for each institutional client, managing ongoing ordering and distribution for institutional clients, and measuring the scale and impact of sales. Additionally, effort will be made to improve the market opportunities for partner farms and food hubs by helping producers and the food hubs meet new federal food safety guidelines as well as building warehousing and transportation capacity to manage increased volumes" (source: https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/2017LFPPDescriptionOfFundedProjects.pdf)
Additionally, Our Harvest opened up a new Weekly Harvest Box pick-up on the University of Cincinnati Medical Campus, reached out to their communities and customers about becoming Community-Owners, and spread the work about their programs at several events:
- PEDCO High Performance Building Seminar about local farm-to-work opportunities
- Interact for Health’s Thriving Communities about Harvest Day
- Cincinnati State’s Horticulture Occupations class about careers in urban and sustainable farming
- First Ladies’ Family Health Day event at Allen Temple
- Fall quarterly meeting of the Ohio and West Virginia Statewide Food Hub Network
