Increase the vibrancy of economic outlets for local agricultural products

Record-breaking Growth for Farmers & Producers

“No farms, no food” is not just a slogan – it’s the basis on which FRESHFARM was founded in 1997 and continues to be a guiding mantra today.  We know that farms don’t last if farmers can’t make a living on the land. This knowledge drives our work to create robust economic outlets for farmers and local food producers through our network of farmers markets, farm stands, and wholesale food hub programs. In 2024, 101 farmers and 143 food producers generated more than $29.8 million in gross revenue through these combined channels.

Results from 2023 and 2024 put us halfway to our goal of generating $120 million for farmers and producers over the five years of our Strategic Plan.

Moreover, the Pop-Up Food Hub (PUFH) doubled its impact, generating over $1.1 million in revenue for small- and mid-sized farmers, connecting restaurants and non-profits, including schools, health clinics, Early Childhood Education centers, and senior centers with local food.

Beyond the Transaction: Building a Community-Driven Food System

Revenue for farmers is only the start of the farmers market story. FRESHFARM’s markets foster community engagement, creating opportunities to deepen the connection between farmers and shoppers and to change narratives about the value and importance of good food for all.

Thanks to the strength of community support, our H Street NE FRESHFARM Market became the 12th year-round market in our network. Year-round markets extend the economic season for farmers cultivating winter and greenhouse crops, farmers offering meat and dairy, and businesses producing baked goods, jams, and other prepared foods. 

FRESHFARM’s markets hosted over 120 community-based organizations in 2024 through our Community Partner program, helping transform streets, sidewalks, plazas, and parking lots into dynamic neighborhood gathering spots. More than 40 neighborhood businesses contributed to the scene as Market Sponsors. FRESHFARM hosted food waste drop-off at five locations and weekly food recovery activities at 14 locations, channeling produce to organizations serving residents in need and diverting tens of thousands of pounds of food from landfills each week. 

Furthermore, most of FRESHFARM’s outlets also host community engagement activities, cooking demonstrations, and educational events throughout the year to enhance the market experience and cultivate a deeper appreciation for fresh, local food.

FRESHFARM shoppers showed their generosity and care for the community by contributing more than $26,000 to our largest-ever Fresh Food Drive in November, tripling donations from the previous year. By donating to the Fresh Food Drive, our market shoppers partner with FRESHFARM to provide fresh market produce and turkeys to families receiving Thanksgiving food assistance from community organizations.

The PUFH has allowed my business to expand, get new customers, and help people get fresh food that is straight from the farm. It has been a huge boost to our bottom line. The money we receive from the PUFH is so important to the success of my business. – Bill Mickley, Mickley’s Orchard

Increase the level of convenient, equitable access to nutritious, local food in the Washington, DC region

A Leader in Expanding Equitable Food Access

Ever since FRESHFARM H Street NE Market became the first in Washington, DC to accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program—widely known as SNAP/EBT—benefits in 2008, we have been a leader in ensuring that all residents of our region have convenient and dignified access to fresh, nutritious, and culturally relevant food. As the convener of a nutrition incentives coalition of 90 markets across the region, we have spearheaded a 73% increase in the redemption of SNAP benefits over the last four years. In the same time frame, over $2.4 million in SNAP and SNAP matching incentives were spent at coalition market and partner locations. Matching incentives and private donations provide a deep discount on our weekly Market Share produce bag for SNAP beneficiaries, who make up more than one-third of the program’s subscribers. 

Last year, FRESHFARM successfully enrolled 8,000 residents in DC’s Produce Plus, a program we administer. These residents redeemed $990k in Produce Plus benefits on fresh fruits and vegetables, a 13% increase over 2023. We also administer the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program in Washington, DC, and Virginia’s Fairfax and Loudoun counties; redemption held steady in the District, whereas in Fairfax and Loudoun counties, there was a dramatic increase of 294% in redemption. Bringing our organizational expertise and capacity to these programs has resulted in a streamlined user experience and resources that help shoppers navigate the programs to ensure they receive and redeem their full benefits.

Farm Stands Bring New Options to Underserved Communities

A core component of FRESHFARM’s food access strategy is ensuring that fresh, locally grown food is available in areas with limited traditional grocery options. Farmers markets and farm stands can be an attractive neighborhood amenity anywhere. Still, it can be economically challenging for farmers to participate in disinvested neighborhoods where their sales may be modest. FRESHFARM takes the risk off the farmers by providing the administrative and staffing infrastructure to support the operation of farm stands, which provide high-quality, affordable produce to the community and serve as crucial sites for redeeming nutrition benefits.

In 2024, THEARC farm stand joined the FRESHFARM network as our sixth location East of the River in Wards 7 and 8. We celebrated the second year of our farm stands at Simon and Whittier Elementary Schools, a pilot project to create school-based food hubs and deepen the impact of our FoodPrints food education program at schools.

I just wanted to share how great it’s been getting the Market Share. I’m just waking up every morning craving vegetables and I’m trying things I wouldn’t have ever tried. I would have seen them in the grocery store but not actually bought them. I’m really learning and growing with this program. – Market Share SNAP customer

Sustain and grow meaningful food education that increases consumption of nutritious, local food.

Nourishing the Soul of Schools and Communities through Gardening, Cooking, Eating, and Learning Together

“FoodPrints not only feeds our students’ and teachers’ stomachs, but it really feeds the soul of our school.” – Mr. Chandler Denard, teacher, Kimball Elementary

In 2024, FRESHFARM’s signature FoodPrints program continued to connect students to food and each other in a unique and powerful way. FRESHFARM provided plentiful opportunities for students to do real-world work in the garden and kitchen through a standards-based curriculum that helps address learning gaps and improve student well-being. 

In typical FoodPrints sessions, students learn about plant parts (stems, leaves, and roots) and cook Plant-Part Pasta. They also explore decomposition by ‘feeding,’ counting, and caring for worms. They harvest kale from the school garden, tear the leaves, and prepare the dressing for Tuscan Kale Salad. They eat seconds and thirds and share the recipe and their excitement to eat it again with their families. 

Since 2005, FoodPrints has expanded to 21 schools through longstanding partnerships with District of Columbia Public Schools and the District government. These partnerships are as critical as ever–building connections to nutritious food–as economic uncertainty looms and federal support for food programs declines. 

Building Community Around Food Beyond the Classroom

FRESHFARM engages communities beyond the classroom, turning schools into hubs for food education and access. Our presence and interventions build positive food cultures; we are part of school events like back-to-school night and math night. In 2024, we worked with a school lunch vendor to gather student feedback through taste tests before produce-based recipes were added to school lunch menus. At Whittier and Simon Elementary Schools, our farm stands increase access to fresh, local produce for families, staff, and surrounding neighbors. 

We also bring the FoodPrints approach to nutrition education to community settings, primarily Early Childhood Education (ECE) centers. In 2024, we worked with 14 ECE centers to bring sensory-rich food exploration for young children, recipe demos and cooking workshops for families and staff; and increased access to fruits and vegetables for snacks and meals.

When stakeholders such as elected officials, funders, donors, and community members visit or participate in our classes, they see and appreciate first-hand the value of FoodPrints’ meaningful and positive experiential food education. 

FoodPrints unlocked a whole new world of friends for me. – 4th grader, Burroughs Elementary

Cultivate policies that foster a strong local food system through increased thought leadership, data, and engagement.

Leadership and Advocacy

A resilient local food system requires strategic advocacy, cross-sector partnerships, and data-driven decision-making to shape critical policies. As FRESHFARM has grown into one of the region’s largest food system organizations, we are committed to using our voice and embracing opportunities for collaborative leadership. 

By building coalitions and mobilizing public testimony, we successfully engaged with DC Council members to expand funding for Produce Plus and ensure continued funding for DC Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP) benefits, redeemable at both FRESHFARM and non-FRESHFARM markets citywide. We led a coalition to expand FreshMatch programming in Virginia, and our advocacy efforts secured more sustainable FoodPrints funding in the District.

Amplifying our Expertise for the Benefit of All 

FRESHFARM leadership and senior staff members bring region-wide, cross-sector experience and strategic perspective in service of several external organizations including: the DC Food Policy Council, the Montgomery County Food Council, Virginia FreshMatch, the Food and Agriculture Regional Member (FARM) Policy Committee and the Regional Agriculture Working Group of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG). 

Several organizations invited speakers from FRESHFARM to set the tone for impactful conversations around food equity, economic resilience, and sustainable agriculture. For example, Director of Education and founder of FoodPrints, Jenn Mampara, spoke at the first-ever US Department of Health and Human Services “Food Is Medicine” conference. Director of Strategic Investments Renee Catacalos delivered the keynote address to the Resilient Food Systems Summit hosted by American University’s Healthy Schools, Healthy Communities Lab.

More than 70 articles and stories featuring FRESHFARM appeared in print, broadcast, and online media in 2024. These included a story on restoring local grain economies featuring our Grain Stand program in Civil Eats, and an extensive FoodPrints story broadcast locally on NBC4 and nationally on the Spanish-language Univision network.  

The results of a study by George Washington University, in collaboration with FRESHFARM, demonstrated that the FoodPrints program has lasting impacts on students’ skills and empowerment to choose and cook nutritious food for themselves and their families. The research was published in January 2024 in the peer-reviewed Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. Also, in 2024, FRESHFARM successfully supported a school district in Kentucky in integrating the FoodPrints curriculum into a school in their elementary school system. This milestone marks an essential step in establishing how our food education model is adaptable for other schools and districts nationwide.

Apply a social justice and equity lens in decision-making, resource allocation, and staff development to mitigate the impacts of racism in the food system.

A Journey of Continual Improvement

To achieve our mission, we believe that we must do our work in community with others, discover ways to share ownership and power, and bring respect and transparency to our programs, policies, and operations. 

FRESHFARM works to continually improve our processes for requesting and receiving input from community members, farmers, and partner organizations to ensure our initiatives are accessible, effective, and culturally relevant. In 2024, we hired Spanish- and Cantonese-speaking food access associates and a Farsi language translator to better serve shoppers navigating our farmers markets and nutrition incentive programs.

In 2024, the FoodPrints program deepened engagement with school partners by maintaining an ongoing dialogue with administrators, staff, and families to tailor programming to each school’s specific needs and goals. This work included participation in family events and PTA meetings, distribution of family newsletters, and collaboration with classroom teachers on lessons and extensions back into the classroom. Similarly, through focus groups with Produce Plus and FreshMatch participants, we updated program materials based directly on community feedback, making them more accessible and user-friendly.

Leading From the Inside Out

Hiring from historically excluded communities is one way to share resources and power with the communities in which we work. In 2024, we continued working with seven Market Champion FRESHFARM employees whose lived experience using Produce Plus informed how we help residents navigate food access in our markets. Market Champions represent both FRESHFARM and their communities with authenticity and empathy. The critical role they played in helping FRESHFARM increase Produce Plus enrollment and redemption last year allowed us to secure additional funding to significantly expand the Market Champions program to support larger numbers of people in navigating a wider range of food and nutrition benefits, ultimately ensuring more people get the food they need to thrive.

Finally, FRESHFARM’s first-ever union contract was ratified in 2024 by a Collective Bargaining Unit consisting of market staff, operators, and senior market operators. This milestone underscored FRESHFARM’s commitment to fair wages, worker protections, and ensuring that frontline food system workers have a voice in shaping their workplace.

Increase the health and vitality of FRESHFARM to ensure our ability to achieve our goals.

A Foundation of Resilience

To effectively serve farmers, markets, and communities, FRESHFARM must be a strong, resilient organization firmly rooted as a regional food system anchor no matter what is happening in the world around us. Our Strategic Plan recognizes the need to take care of ourselves to ensure that we can be of service to others. Driven by our mission and aligned with our values, we prioritized financial sustainability, staff engagement, and cross-department collaboration to build our infrastructure for a more cohesive, sustainable, and impactful future.

Investing in People

After several busy years kicked off by the 2019 merger with Community FoodWorks and the 2020 crisis response to both COVID-19 and demands for racial justice, we made a conscious effort to break the cycle of expanding programs without expanding organizational support capacity. Our work at every level of the food system is relationship-based, dependent on the more than 150 talented, motivated staff members who occupy every position at FRESHFARM throughout the year. We committed to investing in the support our staff deserves by expanding our administrative core – adding positions to the Human Resources, Finance, and Development teams in 2024.

Continued codification of our personnel policies and procedures, as well as new channels of communication to discuss strategic priorities, decision-making processes, and organizational finances, has resulted in a growing number of staff responding to internal surveys that they feel more integrated into the broader mission of FRESHFARM. More cross-departmental initiatives ensured that team members had opportunities to engage beyond their immediate roles, strengthening internal collaboration and increasing the collective impact of FRESHFARM’s work.

FRESHFARM’s finance team has improved the on-time collection of market revenue by 62% over the previous year, strengthening our cash flow position and our ability to reinvest in programs. We transitioned to a new bank that offers increased security and stronger controls over how our resources move. Once again, we received a clean audit, maintaining compliance with best practices in nonprofit financial management.

Our Development team worked with key institutional and individual supporters to secure capacity investments that made organizational improvements in infrastructure and technology possible. Expansion of the development team has also allowed us to revitalize our individual donor outreach, inviting thousands of loyal FRESHFARM market shoppers to help us achieve more equitable access to the joy of fresh, local food throughout our community.

FRESHFARM is an organization that supports its employees and reaches back into the community to help lift others. – FRESHFARM Staffer 

At FRESHFARM, we recognize that a resilient local food system is built on strong, interconnected partnerships. When farmers, families, educators, students, and food access champions all come together, communities flourish. Nowhere is this collaborative model more evident than in the school-based farm stands at Whittier Elementary School (Ward 4) and Simon Elementary School (Ward 8). These farm stands are a powerful example of how FRESHFARM’s Markets, Food Access, and PUFH teams collaborate with FoodPrints’ education and community-building efforts to create meaningful food system change.

These farm stands provide more than just food; they expose students and families to local seasonal produce and give them direct purchasing power to participate with dignity in a stronger, more inclusive local food economy. By sourcing produce directly from small and mid-sized regional farmers via the PUFH and selling that produce at wholesale prices, these farm stands provide families with fresh, affordable seasonal ingredients while creating economic opportunities for local food producers. 

At the heart of the Whittier and Simon Elementary farm stands is the idea that access to healthy food should be local, educational, and empowering. These farm stands connect multiple FRESHFARM initiatives:

• Students get excited about—and learn how to prepare—seasonal produce by growing, harvesting, cooking, and eating it in their FoodPrints classes. They then bring that excitement home to their families, who shop at the farm stands or other outlets for fresh ingredients for simple, low-cost, and produce-forward recipes.
• The Markets and PUFH teams provide the operational muscle to run the school-based farm stands. The PUFH aggregates and delivers the food each week, while the Markets team is the boots on the ground—setting up the stand, selling the produce, and breaking everything down. 
• The Food Access team ensures that our farm stands can accept SNAP/EBT, FMNP, Produce Plus, and FreshMatch, making fresh fruits and vegetables affordable for all community members. In 2024, 27% of transactions at farm stands were paid with Federal nutrition benefits and incentives (much higher than the 4% average at our farmers markets). 
• Parents, caregivers, and nearby neighbors who may not regularly visit farmers markets due to transportation barriers, limited time, or the perception that fresh, local food is not affordable now have an easy way to purchase produce while picking up children in their neighborhood.

The interconnectedness of this model is what makes it so successful. The farm stands are not just about food access; they are food hubs that build food literacy, support local growers, and strengthen the community fabric. 

The farm stand is a beautiful meeting spot. Everyone is sharing in the experience – Whittier students are applying their math or communication skills, our garden club is getting involved, and Coolidge High School students are helping, and FoodPrints students are sharing their excitement for produce or recipes they made at school.
Lisa Washington, Speech Pathologist, Whittier Elementary