Montgomery County’s FY24 Farm to Food Bank Collaborative Funding Program, developed by the Office of Food Systems Resilience (OFSR) and Manna Food Center, recently awarded nearly $134,000 to 10 Montgomery County-based farms to increase the volume of food produced in the County, support long-term resilience in the food supply and enhance nutrition security for residents in the coming year. The Morningstar Foundation invested an additional $29,749 to this program to fund projects focused on cold storage infrastructure, supporting the Foundation’s goal of safe, healthy food access for underserved communities throughout the region.

The Farm to Food Bank (F2FB) Collaborative Funding Program offers a contractual opportunity for current F2FB table-crop farm partners to receive funding for eligible projects that will build their production capacity and support their continued participation in the program. The F2FB program originally developed as a partnership between Manna Food Center and Montgomery County Government at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and continues to source fresh, locally and regionally grown produce, meat and eggs from neighboring farms to provide to those experiencing hunger and food insecurity in the community. This past summer, the F2FB program redistributed more than 75,000 pounds of local food products like corn, watermelon and squash to County residents.  

The collaborative funding agreements offered through this program provides farm partners with up-front payments between $5,000 and $20,000, to help fund projects such as improving equipment or other infrastructure, purchasing machinery or other tools, supporting installation costs, as well as purchasing seeds, soil amendments or other inputs required to grow produce. 

Farm partners receiving awards through the Collaborative Funding program commit to contribute significant quantities of select crops to the F2FB Program over a pre-determined “repayment” period. This food will be distributed to residents experiencing food insecurity through the County’s food assistance provider network. The funded partners and awarded projects are: 

• Amaranth Acres: Install a pole barn to protect hay bales and equipment, allowing for hay with a higher nutrient content as feed for goats and as a component of the farm’s integrative approach to weed- and pest management.  
• Bella Vita Farm: Expand storage capacity and processing equipment to increase production of vegetables and eggs. 
• Chirandu Farms: Purchase a loader, mower and tiller to increase production capacity, reliability, and sustainable land management. 
• Common Root: Purchase a tractor-mounted seeder, a barrel washer for roots, storage bins and an electric wheel hoe, which will improve infrastructure and production efficiency to harvest a greater volume of root vegetables. 
• Evans Homes and Gardens: Purchase a plow and refrigeration to increase cold storage capacity and production output. 
• Greenway Farms: Purchase a heat exchanger to reduce energy costs and improve growing conditions for hydroponic production.  
• One Acre Farm: Purchase a walk-behind tractor and compost to support improved drainage and production capacity in high tunnels. 
• Sandy Spring Gardens: Equipment and infrastructure investments including a heavy-duty mower and tunnel structure to support more efficient harvesting and season extension. 
• Savage Acres: Expand storage capacity to safely store beef and eggs prior to distribution.   
• The Farm at Our House: Purchase a green bean and shelling bean harvester that will increase legume production and improve soil health.