Walton Family Initiative Aims to Help Small Farmers

Small-scale farmers had been challenged by supply chain issues long before the COVID-19 pandemic dumped more of those on their plates. 

And the Walton Family Foundation has been helping them meet those challenges through a $1.5 million initiative called “Northwest Arkansas Food Systems.” The initiative supports regional nonprofits that include:

• The Northwest Arkansas Land Trust Farmlink that connects landowners with experienced farmers interested in leasing or purchasing land;

• The Center for Arkansas Farms and Food at the University of Arkansas, which offers an apprenticeship program to match novice farmers with established farms, educational programs to help farmers scale up and is developing a farm school with experiential learning opportunities for beginners; and

• The Food Conservancy, which opened a food hub that aggregates and distributes locally grown produce to wholesale markets.

“Coronavirus or not, the 150-acre farms have different economies of scale … and what markets are available to us,” said Terry Wisniewski, who handles production and farm relations for The Food Conservancy and owns a half-acre farm in downtown Bentonville. “The Conservancy and the Land Trust and everything else we have going on up here is trying to alleviate that and help the small farmers grow. So I’m very appreciative of all that’s going on.”

“There was a huge demand, before COVID, for local food and, really, the challenge has been that farmers have land and are willing to grow more but won’t do it without a guaranteed market,” said Karin Endy, a strategic advisor to the Walton Family Foundation. “And there hasn’t been enough food for a local food distributor to step in and act in that role, and so that’s why, as a nonprofit, The Food Conservancy can work with grant support to help make that system function.” 

As for the pandemic, it’s shuttered farmers’ markets (or made them drive-thru only), schools and restaurants. 

So The Food Conservancy began purchasing produce from local farmers and selling $20 boxes of it online to consumers. Contact-free pickup is available at the Eight Street Market in Bentonville and at 1605 Shady Grove in Springdale. The organization is buying produce from about 20 farmers, Endy said. 

“If you weren’t participating in an online  market or something like that, you had to find a little more to get your stuff out there,” Wisniewski said. He added that farmers’ markets are where farmers socialize with their customers, so they’re missing out on building and maintaining critical relationships because of COVID-19.

In addition, Endy said, the systems initiative was set up to address several other issues in getting local food to local tables.

For example, the UA is working to build a pipeline of talent by placing six apprentices throughout the region and establishing an 11-month training school for farmers who are just starting out. Farmers also need land and the capital to acquire it. 

Goals for the foundation’s initiative include adding 1,000 acres of fruit and vegetables production in the region over the next five years and adding 75 farmers to the pipeline over the next 10 years, Endy said.