The Common Market in the News

PRESS RELEASE: New Farm to School Pilot at Marietta City Schools Is a Win-win-Win for Georgia Students, Farmers and Community

Something fresh is growing at Marietta City Schools. The district is prepped for a new recipe development and nutrition training workshop that celebrates Georgia-sourced fruits, vegetables and meats—an official kick off to a new local foods incentive pilot program that will support small farms led by people of color, women and others historically excluded from market opportunity within the state and increase student consumption of locally grown, nutritious food.

A Fork in the Road: Pecan & Pine

GPB.org

Georgia’s Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA) enables us to buy and distribute healthy, Georgia-grown foods harvested by farmers like our friends at EKC Pecans and create new markets for their products within food banks throughout the state. This program sees nutritious, high-quality, diverse items reaching communities facing food insecurity and drives deeply meaningful revenue for BIPOC farms. This episode of A Fork in the Road features EKC Pecans and how The Common Market Southeast plays a role in creating opportunities for the family-run operation.

The Rockefeller Foundation Celebrates Continued Investment and Philanthropic Impact in Atlanta

The Rockefeller Foundation

The Rockefeller Foundation has invested more than $11.3 million in and around Metro Atlanta across its Equity & Economic Opportunity and Food programs since 2019. Recent collaborations include:

  • Expanding access to healthier foods while building local capacity and creating more market opportunities for Black farmers and other underserved farm businesses through The Common Market, nonprofit regional food aggregator and distributor that also supports local, sustainable small farmers.

Chef pilots a produce program for underserved preschools

Open Hand

Several preschools have recently banded together to form a “farm to preschool” co-op, led by a partnership between Open Hand Atlanta and The Common Market Southeast. Twice a month, Open Hand delivers fresh produce from The Common Market to participating preschools, along with educational materials.

Deep Roots

Georgia Trend

Small and urban farms are flourishing after helping Georgians weather the COVID storm.

“It does feel like this type of work has a mission, a community aspect and a human significance.”

Meet Our 30 Community Food Champions

National Farm to School Network

“For the past 3+ years, Corey has been a pivotal, behind-the-scenes player in ensuring our fresh, nutritious food reaches our food service teams, students and partners alike safely and smoothly. His contagious positive attitude, resilient spirit, and direct action ensures safe, clean, beautiful food gets picked up from our farms, gets inspected for safety and quality, and ultimately reaches our region's schools and beyond.”

USDA: The Common Market, Part 2

USDA Food And Nutrition Service (SERO)

In part 2 of this series, Bill Green discusses The Common Market’s mission to connect communities with good food from sustainable family farms. They strive to improve food security, farm viability and community and ecological health.

When the Common Market Southeast began producing USDA Farmers to Families Food Boxes, they were able to hire 34 additional people to work on their production lines, and as drivers. The Food Boxes provide farm fresh produce to create thousands of meals each week. Currently, the distributor is producing 15,000 boxes a week.

Despite Bumpy Rollout, Food Box Program Supports Farmers and Hungry Americans

National Farmers Union

"For the farmers, it’s been a win-win – providing support for those in need while also providing an opportunity to keep their farms afloat. 'Seeing our shiitake mushrooms reaching local communities warms our hearts and makes us proud of what we do every day,' shared Howard Berk of Ellijay Mushrooms, a mushroom farm located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. 'The Common Market has given us a lifeline in these uncertain times with the opportunity to supply our mushrooms in the USDA farm boxes.'”