USDA Farmers to Families Food Box Program Wallace Center Research Findings and Final Report

This report examines how a group of food hubs and local distributors were able to leverage the USDA Farmers to Families Food Box Program to support local and regional farms and food business and vulnerable communities through the COVID crisis. This report is the culmination of nearly a years worth of implementation advocacy, surveys and interviews with participating local contractors. The report examines impacts that these local contractors had on farms and their communities, and lists recommendations for how future iterations of this program can be designed to better support the local farms, hubs, and distributors who are well positioned to succeed in this program. Findings show that there is something quite promising and innovative in how USDA AMS leveraged federal commodity procurement dollars and systems to address the perennial tension between farmer & food business economic viability, healthy food access, and community food security, while investing significant funding in a very short amount of time into local and regional food systems.