USDA’s Food Box Program Shuts Out Small Farmers | Eater
"A regional cooperative network that organized large-scale purchases of produce from Black smallholders and routed thousands of fresh food boxes to often-overlooked churches, nonprofits, and community groups across the rural South. During the program it bought more than half a million pounds from dozens of Black farmers at fair-market prices, created jobs, mobilized volunteers, and deliberately targeted communities that traditional aid systems miss. After the USDA declined to renew its contract, those distribution channels and reliable markets for member farmers collapsed, leaving growers with surplus crops and many families without access to fresh produce; the organization has since tried to sustain a reduced version of the effort using private funds while arguing the model should be expanded as a disaster- and social-assistance tool." - Gosia Wozniacka
