Partnerships between farmers market and food access organizations can provide more people with equitable access to local foods and increase food security. One way to do this is through gleaning: the process of collecting excess food from farmers markets, farms, gardens, grocers, and other sources in order to provide it to those in need (like through a food bank!).

• Let’s Glean! – USDA Gleaning Toolkit

• Guide to Gleaning – Healthy Acadia and the University of Maine Cooperative Extension

• Farmers Markets: Connecting Underserved Communities to Healthy Foods

Here are some more resources for learning how to partner with food access organizations:

• Farmers Market Access Project: Expanding Nutrition Assistance Programs at Washington Farmers Markets (The Institute for Functional Medicine)
• NIFA’s Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP) partners with farmers markets, farm stands, community-supported agriculture, and mobile markets by providing incentives for fruits and vegetables. GusNIP brings together stakeholders from food and healthcare systems to improve participant nutrition and health.
• CDC: Chapter 4: Farmers Markets, Encouraging Farmers Markets in Underserved Areas
• Project for Public Spaces: Farmers Markets as a Strategy to Improve Access to Healthy Food for Low-Income Families and Communities
• Program: Farmers markets, mobile markets, and CSAs: Community benefit support for farmers markets, CSA programs, and mobile markets
• Building Partnerships with SNAP-Ed and Food Navigators – MIFMA