Inside FRESHFARM’s Impact: From Hidden Gems Farm to Ward 7 Farm Stands
Seeing is believing, and funders who joined us for FRESHFARM’s Impact: Farm & Market Tour on October 30 saw something powerful: how their partnership with FRESHFARM creates real-time impact in our regional food system, fostering economic opportunities for local farmers while connecting families in our community to fresh, nutritious food.
Hidden Gems Farm: A Family Farm Built on Sustainable Practices
Funders and donors on the tour witnessed firsthand how our relationships with farmers like Lorenzo Gibbs of Hidden Gems Farm are among FRESHFARM’s greatest assets. The Gibbs family runs a diversified, pesticide-free operation that includes goats for meat and dairy products, grass-fed beef cattle, and berry cultivation. It’s a true family enterprise, with Lorenzo, his wife Summiya, and their daughters working together in the fields and in their farm kitchen, where they craft value-added products like the delicious apple cider donuts they treated us to during our visit.
Lorenzo spoke about their farming philosophy of raising and growing food with practices that honor the land, and how essential our farmers markets are as the primary outlet for their diverse product lines. Their model shows what’s possible when farmers have reliable market access: sustainable practices, family livelihoods, and food that nourishes our community.
Expanding Food Access in DC’s Wards 7 and 8
On our second stop at the FRESHFARM Minnesota Ave. Farm Stand, we saw how FRESHFARM’s single-farmer farm stand model expands access to local produce, especially in DC’s Wards 7 and 8. We visited on a Thursday afternoon at the end of the month when customers spend their remaining SNAP and Produce Plus benefits before they reset. Customers also used FreshMatch to double their purchasing power and fill their bags with fresh fruits and vegetables in a community where healthy food options are limited.
It was also just two days before the suspension of SNAP benefits as part of the federal government shutdown. The current moment makes FRESHFARM’s work more urgent than ever. When SNAP benefits freeze, farmers lose income and families lose food access simultaneously. FRESHFARM’s emergency response—providing $30 in FreshMatch to SNAP customers and federal workers who have been furloughed or are working without pay—only works because of the farmer relationships and market infrastructure we’ve built over nearly three decades, along with the generous support of funders and individual donors.
