North Carolina's FarmsSHARE: Farmers, Food Hubs, And Community-Based Organizations Sustain Healthy Food Programs

Abstract

The North Carolina FarmsSHARE program distributes healthy, locally sourced food to low-income households across nearly 100 counties in the state through the Department of Agriculture's Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement. In this article, we present insights from a cross-sectional survey of stakeholders who were involved in implementing the program. We explore measures of satisfaction, perceived value, economic impact, quality of food, and community relationships within each stakeholder group (farmers, food hubs, and community-based organizations). We also discuss FarmsSHARE's impact on local farms, businesses, and food systems. In 2024, FarmsSHARE connected 217 local farms, 16 food hubs, and 117 community-based organizations that worked together to distribute more than 72,000 healthy food boxes. Our findings suggest that FarmsSHARE is strengthening collaborations and local food systems, specifically through partnerships with farms owned by members of racial and ethnic minority groups, and improving access to nutritionally tailored healthy food boxes for low-income households. These insights can be used to guide efforts to integrate local food within the Food Is Medicine paradigm to address nutrition insecurity and promote more equitable food systems within communities.