Project GROWS has been awarded a $354,000 USDA Farmers Market Promotion Program grant that will support the development, expansion and marketing of the non-profit’s Farmers Market and Mobile Market Programs.
Project GROWS has been managing farmers markets for the past seven years and is currently operating four of the five SNAP matching farmers market programs in the Staunton, Augusta, and Waynesboro region. With a mission to improve the health of youth and families through farm-based education and access to healthy food, the PG farmers markets play a vital role in connecting youth and families to healthy, fresh, and affordable foods in their community.
“Our farmers markets provide an essential access point in our community to connect the youth we see on our farm and in the schools to a community marketplace where they can access healthy, fresh, and affordable foods to eat at home. It is essential that our farmers and markets are supported so we can continue to provide these vital market places to community members and our farmers alike,” says Megan Marshall, Project GROWS Director of Food Access.
This grant will provide key marketing funds to boost the awareness of the Project GROWS Farmers Markets from a producer and consumer standpoint, recruit and empower small, beginning, and socially disadvantaged farmers through a farmer ambassador program, and reduce consumer barriers to participating in local food markets by expanding the PG mobile farmers market program.
If you are interested in learning more about the Project GROWS Farmers Markets or Mobile Market program and/or you are a producer who would like to become involved in either program contact the Project GROWS Director of Food Access, Megan Marshall at [email protected].
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