Community Food Access

Community Food Access & Mutual Aid Programs

As a mission-driven nonprofit, growing local food access for all members of our community is at the heart of what we do. We rely on close partnerships with other nonprofits, food pantries, mutual aid groups, and service organizations in order to do this!

Farm to Institution

Our Farm to Institution work is part of our broader effort to connect more people to nutritious food access by reaching them not just at home, but at institutions they visit every day. This includes initiatives to reach food pantries, schools, and early childcare education programs. Farm to School (F2S) is our largest program under this umbrella and in 2023, we doubled the size of our operations to serve as many as 14,000 students, nearly half of whom qualify for free or reduced lunch. To help us achieve this work, we partner with Champlain Valley Education Services' BOCES Shared Food Services program and Cornell Cooperative of Essex County's Farm to Institution program.

Food as Medicine

Access to nutritious food is critical to health and resilience and Food as Medicine programs reaffirm this connection, recognizing that access to high-quality nourishment is essential for well-being. We partner with Hudson Headwaters Health Network to aggregate and distribute local food boxes to participants in their Food as Medicine program. In Spring 2024, we will begin our third cohort of the program together!

Fair Food

In 2020, we partnered with AdkAction (as The Hub on the Hill) to aggregate and distribute 65,000 meals to 500 households during the pandemic. This Emergency Food Packages project evolved into AdkAction's Fair Food Program to ensure ongoing support for families to access nutritious foods. EFH is a vendor in their new program, providing online ordering and home delivery to Fair Food participants across the North Country.

Mutual Aid

We have numerous partnerships to reach communities in need, not only in the North Country but across the state and as far south as NYC. Our mutual aid work includes distribution of donations by farmers and by Essex Food Hub and free food distributions made possible by grant funds.