In 2021, the Farmers Market Coalition (FMC) entered into a partnership with the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) and USDA Farmers Market Team, under a cooperative agreement titled “Increasing Food Access through Farmers Market Implementation and Education with Underserved Community Focus”. This agreement included two separate pilot projects centered on expanding nutrition education and access to local food.

The first pilot focused on developing and operationalizing farmers markets at 1890 land-grant universities. The goal of this pilot was to increase access to fresh, healthy, local foods for students, staff, and the surrounding communities associated with three 1890 universities, while also educating consumers on the benefits of local foods, expanding direct sales opportunities for small producers, and growing connections between the pilot universities and local farmers and growers.

Read a report of the university pilot activities and outcomes and access the toolkit for this project in the document attached.