Reducing Food Waste and Enhancing Specialty Crop Farm Viability

The Good Acre is taking a multi-prong approach to reducing food waste that includes wholesale-specific technical assistance for produce farmers, and buyer education and support intended to increase customer flexibility and establish a “seconds” market. This project aims to decrease food waste, increase food access, and support small produce farms.

We are Minnesota's largest nonprofit food hub. Our mission is to unlock economic opportunities for farmers in our region, especially those who have historically been excluded from making a viable living, and we do that through a unique combination of personalized support for farmers and market access.

Our SARE project will use a multi-prong approach to reducing food waste, one that deepens and builds on our existing work. This includes wholesale-specific technical assistance for our produce farm partners and buyers, education, and support that's intended to increase customer flexibility and establish a “second quality” market. 

We plan to establish a baseline of excess food produced on farms with farmers who have annual contracts and aim to decrease the volume of excess food being grown by 10%. Part of the training will involve creating an image-heavy guide for our farm partners that illustrates differences between first and second quality. We'll also develop additional outlets for those seconds with a goal of $200,000 in annual second sales. Also, we want to provide wholesale buyers with education and support to expand definitions of first quality when it comes to produce.