86 agricultural groups receive Farm Aid grants
The Farm Aid charity distributed $817,500 in grant money nationwide to 86 grassroots farming organizations. Five groups in Connecticut each received grants of $7,500.
The Connecticut beneficiaries are:
Connecticut Farmland Trust in Hartford, whose stated mission is to “preserve Connecticut farmland for current and future generations of farmers,” will use the grant to support its Farmlink social media project, a collaboration with the Connecticut Department of Agriculture that matches farmers with farmland they can lease or purchase.
Cityseed, which operates several farmers’ markets in New Haven, will use the money to help start a new farmers’ market in the city’s Dixwell neighborhood.
Green Village Initiative’s grant will go to “create a more just food system in Bridgeport,” according to the Farm Aid website.
KNOX, which its website says is “using horticulture as a catalyst for community engagement” in Hartford through community gardens, tree planting and other urban environmental programs,” will use its grant to provide training and mentoring to underemployed and new farmers.
The Hartford Food System and the Connecticut Food System Alliance jointly received $7,500, which it will use (according to Farm Aid) “to solicit input and policy priorities from Black, Indigenous, and Other People of Color (BIPOC) farmers and farm business leaders to be used in the development of a Food Action Plan for Connecticut.”
Farm Aid also gave $15,000 in grant money to the Northeast Organic Farming Association, which has a Connecti
cut chapter. NOFA runs a variety of food and agriculture-based initiatives, as well as organic land care programs. The grant will help the six states in the association to work on stateby-state and regional policy decisions and improve advocacy efforts for farmers in the northeast.
Elisabeth Moore, executive director of Connecticut Farmland Trust, says the Farm Aid grant is “very important for us. We are using it for social media outreach, and we don’t have money in our budget specifically for that.” This is the second Farm Aid grant the trust has received.
Farm Aid grants recipients were prioritized this year, the release states, around such criteria as “working to support family farmers, advance racial equity and social justice in our food system, advance farmer-led solutions to climate change, and build capacity for systemic change in our farm and food systems.”
Farm Aid is perhaps best known for its star-studded annual benefit concerts, led by the organization’s co-founder Willie Nelson. The 2021 and 2018 Farm Aid concerts were held in Hartford, at the Xfinity Theater, where a farm expo on the concert grounds included food and demonstrations from Connecticut farmers. The 2021 concert line-up included Willie Nelson & Family, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds, Margo Price, Bettye Lavette and others.
Nelson released a statement when the grants were announced: “Thanks to generous supporters from across the country — and a triumphant return to the Farm Aid stage in Hartford, Connecticut — Farm Aid is glad to make these grants to grassroots organizations that support family farmers across the country. These folks are the lifeblood of the movement for family farmers and their work is essential for an equitable and sustainable farm and food system for us all.”
Earlier in 2021, Farm Aid gave $113,000 to families on farms and ranches impacted by “immediate and longterm climate disasters,” as well as $17,500 for strategic grants to “advance family farm agriculture,” $24,000 in small $500 grants to help farm families with essential household expenses, and around $20,000 in scholarships for agriculture students. Added to the December grants, Farm Aid gave a total of $992,000 this past year to family farms and farming organizations.
The concert is a major fundraising event, but Farm Aid is a year-round operation that also accepts donations at farmaid.org/ donate. A complete list of the 2021 grant recipients is at farmaid.org/our-work/ grants.