In June for Father’s Day, we featured Evan and Matt of SFC’s Farm Direct department about how their respective family’s impact their work in local foods and why it provides the drive for what they do. Beyond our own families, we recognize that Sustainable Food Center is really a family of people, communities, farmers, and vendors all working together to make Central Texas a more resilient and equitable food system for everyone.
One place we find the SFC family in force is every week at our Farmers Markets or in one of many of our Farm Direct Programs. One farm that works particularly close with SFC is Farmshare Austin, as they work with us in a whole slew of our programs.
Farmshare Austin is a farm education and training program that prepares the next generation of growers for the joys and challenges of farming in their Farmer Starter program. Farmshare’s bumper sticker puts it more succinctly by stating, ‘We Grow Farmers’. Farmshare uses a blend of formal classroom education and hands on field experience to create a holistic learning experience for their students. They are currently enrolling for their Spring 2016 class.
Fair and equitable access to fresh, healthy, local fruits and vegetables is also paramount to Farmshare’s mission, and SFC works closely with them to make strides in this area. We collaborate with them in Farm Direct’s Farm to Family, Farm to School, and Farm to Work programs, and they will soon be selling at the SFC Farmers’ Market at Sunset Valley. Lorig Hawkins, Farm Programs Director for Farmshare Austin says, “Working with so many different programs at Sustainable Food Center has been a boon to our farm, but more importantly to the customers, communities, and people we serve.”
It’s been exciting to add Farmshare to the SFC family over the past year as our partnership continues to grow. In fact, SFC Staff will be enjoying spending our quarterly ‘Fun Day’ out at Farmshare this October when everyone will get a chance to tour their farm operation, pull some weeds, and simply enjoy the company of our extended SFC family.
