Food for Others Partner Spotlight: Connecting Local Farmers to Families Who Need It Most
How do you bring the abundance and freshness of the farmers market bounty onto the tables of neighbors in need? The reality is that the infrastructure to connect neighbors who need it most with healthy, fresh produce is limited.
Just ask Food for Others, a nonprofit based in Fairfax, VA that since 1995 has distributed food to struggling Northern Virginia families and today is a critical piece of the region’s safety net—reaching 64,000 unique food-insecure households last year alone.
Brittany Marteney, Program Manager at Food for Others, and her team researched extensively into the potential to source from local farmers and always reached the same conclusion: they didn’t have the logistical capacity to gather enough produce from different farms to meet their demand. That’s where FRESHFARM’s Pop-Up Food Hub comes in, providing the infrastructure—ordering system, collection, transportation, and delivery—needed to realize win-win relationships between local farmers and food access organizations like Food for Others.
Launched in 2016, FRESHFARM’s Pop-Up Food Hub is an award-winning program connecting fresh produce grown by local farmers to those in our community who need it most.
Here’s how it works: The Pop-Up Food Hub team takes orders for fresh produce from community organizations serving families facing food insecurity—partners include health clinics, food banks, and childcare and senior centers across DC, Maryland, and Virginia. The team then places orders with local farmers from our network, picks up the produce at farmers markets, repacks it, and delivers it within a day.
The Power of Collaboration to Scale Impact
Food for Others is one of the 100+ organizations FRESHFARM is proud to collaborate with. They began sourcing from the Pop-Up Food Hub in September of 2024 thanks to the USDA’s Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA), which aims to support local food supply chains (as of May 2025, the future of the LFPA was still uncertain).
Since then, Food for Others has purchased from the Pop-Up Food Hub and distributed over 65,000 pounds of fresh, locally grown produce to food-insecure neighbors. What’s more, the partnership has saved them more than $20,000—funds that the organization was able to reallocate toward critical food purchases, shared Brittany. For instance, thanks to the savings, Food for Others was able to stretch its resources and continue providing eggs to clients even as prices rose.
Overcoming Challenges
Working with Food for Others has enabled FRESHFARM to scale our impact beyond the farmers markets and allowed them to fulfill their mission. “We’ve been able to ensure consistent access to locally grown produce, reduce barriers to healthy food for food-insecure households, and source items that reflect the cultural and dietary preferences of the communities we serve,” said Brittany.
Last year, the Pop-Up Food Hub generated over $1.15 million in revenue for 40+ small- and mid-sized regional farmers, and distributed 240,000+ pounds of locally grown produce to food-insecure families. We cracked the code of how to scale the abundance of our markets beyond the market! It’s a win-win-win for farmers, families in need, and community organizations who share our vision.
The Road Ahead
FRESHFARM is grateful for the donations of individuals and foundations that support our mission. However, federal funding is essential to scale and meet the demand from neighbors in need. Eating local spinach or corn should not be a privilege.
“The LFPA allowed us to continue providing fresh produce throughout the winter months—something that would otherwise be challenging—at a price point that makes sense for our programs and our mission,” Brittany noted.
When asked about the future, Brittany reflected: “We are deeply concerned about the uncertainty surrounding future LFPA funding and the threat of reduced investment in nutrition assistance programs. LFPA has been critical to sustaining our purchases of local food. Without stable and ongoing funding, organizations like ours may struggle to continue buying from local farmers at fair prices or to provide consistent access to fresh, wholesome food for low-income families.”
In May, FRESHFARM applied for funding through the Virginia Agriculture Food Assistance Program, which, if approved, will allow us to incentivize community partners in Virginia—including Food for Others—to purchase produce grown in Virginia by farmers in our network. The available funding is less than in previous years, and it’s unclear whether the grant will come back in 2026. FRESHFARM’s Pop-Up Food Hub will continue to do whatever is in our power to maintain our collaboration with other organizations and serve the community at a time when it matters most.
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