[ 2023 - 2028 ]

Strategic Plan

We are proud to unveil FRESHFARM’s Strategic Plan, the result of a year-long collaborative process that brought together our staff, Board, partners, and the communities we serve, all united with one sole purpose: to delineate a roadmap for building a resilient, equitable, and vibrant regional food system. This Strategic Plan represents a pivotal point in the history of FRESHFARM. It is an explicit commitment to strengthen our leadership as a regional food systems organization, to scale our impact and reach, and to deliberately integrate the communities we serve in everything we do.

We know that only by aiming high, we’ll be able to achieve our goals of:

  • Cultivating a thriving local food economy that respects producers, consumers, and our environment equally.
  • Empowering all individuals and communities with the knowledge and agency to access local, nutritious food.

We’ve come a long way, but recognize that the challenges ahead of us are formidable, and cannot be addressed but through collective action.

Over the course of the next five years, FRESHFARM’s Strategic Plan will provide a roadmap for creating innovative solutions to our regional food system’s most pressing challenges. We invite you to be part of this exciting phase in the history of FRESHFARM and support us as we foster a Mid-Atlantic food system that nourishes all.

Our Challenge

Our current food system is unreliable and limits our community’s ability to be healthy and self-sustaining. While local farmers struggle to find economic outlets and make a living, many of our neighborhoods can’t access a quality grocer, let alone seasonal food grown down the road. Communities of color at both ends of the supply chain are disproportionately impacted by this broken food system. These problems limit communities from achieving economic development, leading active and healthy lives, and exercising agency in the food they grow and consume.

Farmer

Our Mission

FRESHFARM builds a more equitable, vibrant, sustainable, and resilient food system in the Mid-Atlantic region by producing innovative solutions to solve critical problems in partnership with local communities and organizations. We create food access, economic development, and thriving communities through hands-on education, farmers markets, and food distribution programs.

Our Goals

Promote a thriving food economy that prioritizes producers, consumers, and the environment.

Give all people and communities agency and knowledge to access nutritious, local food.

Our Strategies

Our Strategies Infographic

Grow Individual Agency

We create spaces, educational opportunities, and supportive experiences that give people the ability and agency to access nutritious local food.

Cultivate and Support Communities

In partnership with community-based organizations, we develop collaborative, community-driven solutions to grow more local food and to make that food more accessible, familiar, and desired.

Sow Systemic Change

As a partner in the regional food system, we address root causes that prevent an equitable, resilient, and sustainable food system.

Raise Organizational Effectiveness 

Using the strategies above, we implement human-centered organizational stewardship that increases operational efficiencies, enables more efficient and effective communication, grows fundraising success, and expands FRESHFARM’s position as a regional leader.

Our Objectives & Benchmarks

Between 2023 and 2028, FRESHFARM will scale our impact and increase the depth, breadth, and volume of our outcomes according to the following objectives and benchmarks, driving lasting change across the food system. We recognize that objectives evolve over time, and we commit to revisiting these annually to leave space for revision.

ONE

Increase the vibrancy of economic outlets for local agricultural products.

Vibrant outlets generate significant revenue for farmers and producers, engage customers beyond a financial transaction, and increase institutional ability to procure and use nutritious, local food, improving regional food resiliency.

 

  • FRESHFARM economic outlets will generate at least $120 million in gross revenue for Mid-Atlantic farmers and producers.
  • 3/4 of our outlets will enhance customer experience through community engagement activities.
  • 1/2 of our partner institutions will increase their ability to procure and utilize fresh, local food for their constituents.

TWO

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

Equitable food access ensures that residents are able to eat nutritious local food that is culturally relevant regardless of their income or where they live.

 

  • All FRESHFARM markets and farm stands will continue to offer nutrition benefit redemption and incentive programs for our customers who will take home at least $5.5 million in local food.
  • Annually, we will increase federal nutrition benefits and incentives redemption by 5% and maintain 40% of users as return and active customers across FRESHFARM and partner outlets.
  • We will expand access to fresh, local produce by supporting or adding five new outlets that accept nutrition benefits and offer incentives in underserved neighborhoods.

THREE

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

Hands-on food education provides joyful experiences with growing, preparing, and eating local food. Positive experiences with nutritious food help to sustain minds and bodies, grow healthier communities, and build appreciation for the natural world.

  • FRESHFARM will maintain experiential food education at current partner schools and annually add two to three new sites.
  • We will establish two school food hubs annually, offering food and garden education, local food access, community engagement, and supporting school meals programming.
  • We will partner with 10 community-based organizations annually to provide integrated food distribution and education.

FOUR

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

Well designed and funded policies support vibrant economic outlets for farmers, equitable access to nutritious and culturally appropriate local foods, the creation of high-quality living wage jobs, and meaningful food education.

  • FRESHFARM staff will hold leadership roles in 50% of the coalitions that we participate in.
  • We will develop at least one public and private organizational relationship per year spanning education, health, and economic development in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC.
  • We will increase our thought leadership by submitting two op-eds and sitting on three speaking panels each year.
  • We will increase utilization of the FoodPrints curriculum by individuals and outside organizations by 25% each year.

FIVE

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.

Only through deep community participation, particularly of those historically excluded from ownership and power, will we make progress towards cultivating a thriving, diverse, and equitable food system.

  • FRESHFARM will engage with communities we serve by ensuring their needs and assets are integrated into our operations, program design, and decision making in alignment with the Spectrum of Community Engagement to Ownership.
  • We will launch a workforce development strategy and hire 20 individuals with direct ties to communities that have been historically excluded from ownership and power into meaningful food system jobs with growth potential.

SIX

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

A healthy organization is financially stable, engages and supports its staff, and has a culture that is grounded in our values and furthers the mission, sustainability, and overall success of our organization.

  • FRESHFARM will ensure that 90% of staff who have been at the organization for more than a year understand and can effectively communicate our mission, goals, and finances.
  • We will ensure that 80% of staff affirm that they are satisfied in their jobs, meaning they feel well-resourced, valued, integrated into their teams, and understand their growth trajectory, and that FRESHFARM’s workplace culture aligns with our values.
  • Annually, we will receive a clean audit, demonstrating high integrity and transparency in financial management.

OUR VALUES

FRESHFARM’s values are the compass that guides decision-making, program design, and our daily work.

Integrity

We are honest and adhere to strong moral and ethical principles.

Transparency

We are committed to clear, open communication within the organization and with the communities we serve.

Inclusivity

We are actively building a food system that prioritizes traditionally marginalized communities.

Collaboration

We believe in the power of partnering with others to pursue a better collective future.

Continuous Improvement

We adapt to change and address challenges with an aim for excellence in everything we do.

Innovative Leadership

We apply creativity and ingenuity to model transformational community-based leadership.

You, too, are part of our regional food system.

Join FRESHFARM in our mission by donating to our food access and education programs, shopping at our markets, and volunteering with us.

DOWNLOAD THE PLAN