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. We are launching micro-groceries to alleviate rural food access issues. 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. Eligible households are low- and middle-income families in Clinton, Franklin, Essex, and Hamilton Counties.
Participants receive a Fair Food Card, which is a credit card that has been pre-loaded with funds based on household size. Fair Food Cards can only be used to purchase locally-sourced foods from approved 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.
When a small community’s only grocery store closes, the impact can be devastating, especially for food-insecure households. The Farmacy Project works to make local and fresh food easier to find, buy, and eat by creating grocery areas in existing storefronts like the Keeseville Pharmacy. The resulting ‘Farmacy’ serves as a model for bringing healthy local food to rural communities, and has been replicated at the Mountain Weavers Farm Store in Port Henry, and Cornerstone Drug in Rouses Point.
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.
AdkAction is also the fiscal sponsor of the Webb Community Garden in Old Forge.
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.
This summer, AdkAction launched the second year of our Fair Share program, a component of our food security project that funds participation in local farm CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) shares
UTICA, N.Y. — Excellus BlueCross BlueShield recently awarded AdkAction a Community Health Award of $2,500 to support their Keeseville Community Garden. The garden serves the rural community of Keeseville where
AdkAction has been working with long-standing supporter, CDPHP®, to administer a wellness survey at the Saranac Lake Farmers Market throughout the market season. The wellness survey focuses on food security,