Welcome to FRESHFARM’s community of supporters!
Hi, I’m Renee, Director of Strategic Investments at FRESHFARM.
With the Dupont Circle Farmers Market, the first producer-only market in DC, FRESHFARM’s co-founders Ann Yonkers and Bernie Prince started building something unique back in 1997: not just a place to buy beautiful vegetables, and pastured eggs and meats, and gorgeous native flowers, but a way to keep local farmers on their land and DC residents nourished. It was a way to teach a city what was actually at stake — what we could lose — when farmland disappeared for lack of connection between farmers and eaters.
With a solid vision of building a food system that works for everyone, FRESHFARM started with one solution — farmers markets — but has followed the problem wherever it led, generating new solutions along the way.
Starting with one farmers market and 15 farmers, FRESHFARM created a vibrant community space where small, local farmers can sell high-quality food for prices that sustain their businesses and families. They can build real relationships with the people buying their food. Today, more than 250 farmers and producers generate $30 million in revenue by selling at our markets across Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia. Farmers like Bill Mickley of Mickley’s Orchard, who’s found a reliable source of income in our markets. FRESHFARM shoppers can truly know their farmers and know their food.
But we kept asking what else stood in the way of a fresh meal reaching someone’s table. That question shaped our approach to increasing food access. We found ways to help shoppers using SNAP, WIC or other nutrition benefit dollars stretch their money further so a fresh, tasty apple isn’t a privilege.
It’s why you’ll find six FRESHFARM farm stands east of the Anacostia River, where food insecurity runs highest. It’s also why we maintained our SNAP match during the 2025 federal government shutdown that left many families with no nutrition benefits at all.
We also asked, what about the family who can’t get to a market or a farm stand at all? That gave rise to the FRESHFARM Food Hub — distributing fresh, local produce from our markets through health clinics, senior centers, and community organizations already serving families in need. Organizations like Food for Others, which has sourced produce from our Food Hub since 2024. FRESHFARM’s Food Hub generates more revenue for local farmers, and meets more people where they are in local communities.
And what about the next generation? How do we make sure our children grow up loving nutritious food? That’s the work of FRESHFARM FoodPrints, now marking 20 years of getting kids’ hands in the soil and local food onto their own plates. Our teachers bring joyful, hands-on learning to more than 8,000 kids each year, seeding an appreciation of and love for fruits and vegetables early. It’s a transformative experience for kids like Aaron, a FoodPrints alum, who is now back in a FoodPrints classroom as a college intern.
I encourage you to take a look around our website, which is full of incredible personal stories about impact that might not have happened without supporters like you. I’m so glad you have joined our community of care, alongside other supporters and our professional team, all working toward the same vision: fresh, local food for everyone in the Washington, DC region.
Renee Catacalos
Director of Strategic Investments