The problem: Food from small-scale sustainable local farms is out of reach– both economically and physically– for the many food insecure households in the Adirondacks.
How we’re taking action: AdkAction is fighting food insecurity with multiple programs aimed at overcoming distinct hurdles. To alleviate rural food access issues, we provide consulting and micro-grants to rural grocery stores. We provide free seasonal farm shares or easy to use local food stipends to families in need. In all programs we emphasize dignity for participants and support of our local sustainable farms.
AdkAction’s Fair Food Program provides funding to qualified households to purchase locally sourced, farm fresh foods. We work with area farmers and food processors who value humane care of livestock and sustainable agriculture. Participants receive a Fair Food Card, a debit-style card that has been pre-loaded with funds that can only be used at approved local farm vendors. Cards are topped up monthly with funds from generous foundation supporters and individual community donors.
AdkAction’s Fair Share is a season-long CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) subscription to receive produce from a local farm, at no cost to participants. From June-October, households receive a box each week that contains a mix of five to seven different seasonally available vegetables.
Our Fair Share program helps low and middle-income community members to take advantage of the health, environmental, and social benefits of participating in a CSA, while helping small farmers through upfront investment ahead of the growing season, when it is needed most.
AdkAction is the fiscal sponsor of the Adirondack Food System Network, a collaborative regional food council led by multiple organizations to better understand system-wide issues, identify gaps, and pursue realistic solutions to help strengthen and promote a more resilient regional food system through collective and equitable partnership.
Independent grocery stores are essential to Adirondack communities, providing access to fresh food, supporting local economies, and serving as gathering places in rural towns. AdkAction’s Rural Grocery Initiative strengthens these small but vital businesses through personalized consulting and micro-grants that help fund critical upgrades like refrigeration, cold storage, HVAC systems, and energy efficiency improvements—addressing infrastructure challenges that often threaten long-term viability.
The Keeseville Community Garden is a project created by AdkAction’s 2021 Tom Boothe Adirondack Intern Kim Gonzales, who sourced all of the initial materials, land, and interest and constructed the garden beds. The garden is a community-cultivated space that functions not only as gardening space for residents of nearby apartments, but also hosts educational workshops and provides opportunities for learning to grow food in a risk-free environment.
In 2021-2022, AdkAction worked with the Hub on the Hill (now the Essex Food Hub) in Essex NY to help them become the first food hub in the nation to accept EBT SNAP payments through their online grocery store. To further expand access to local food, AdkAction documented the SNAP online process navigated by the Hub and created a guide from which other food hubs across the nation can learn.
At the start of 2026, AdkAction changed how the Fair Food Card project reaches families across the North Country. Instead of enrolling participants directly, we partner with Women, Infants, and
The Keeseville Community Garden was established in 2021 by AdkAction’s Tom Boothe Adirondack Intern, Kim Gonzales, to create a welcoming space where residents could learn to grow food, participate in
Across the Adirondacks, small grocery stores do important work. They keep communities fed, connect neighbors, and make it possible for people to live in places that might otherwise lose access