The Food Sovereignty Fund: investing in shared abundance

Originating in a year’s worth of community conversations and resource sharing, Glynwood’s Food Sovereignty Fund has been contracting small-scale farmers from historically marginalized backgrounds to supply fresh, nutrient-dense, culturally significant food to frontline food access programs since 2020. To date, more than 230,000 pounds of vegetables, fruits, dairy, meat, and poultry have been distributed, and in 2023 approximately 15,000 households received food through the program. In 2024, the Food Sovereignty Fund will support and facilitate partnerships between approximately forty farms and food access programs. Critical elements of the program that will be discussed are the process for contracting farms and reporting deliveries, building and operating refrigerated “mini-hubs” for aggregation and distribution of food, and implementing language justice practices with the program cohort. This panel features the experts on the ground (farmers, organizers, food pantry managers) who designed and implement this program. It will also preview the forthcoming Food Sovereignty Fund toolkit that summarizes challenges, lessons learned, and suggested best practices for others to adopt and replicate this program in their communities.