This week we announced our most recent round of grantmaking: $1.6 million to 44 organizations. You can see the full details here.
One of the new grantees to come out of this round of grantmaking is Red Tomato, an organization whose mission is “to reinvent how farmers connect with consumers, through a passionate belief that a family farm, locally based, ecological, fair trade product is the way to a better food system.”
Red Tomato is a collaborative network: they work with farmers who help them understand the product, the labor that goes into it and what a fair price is. They also work with scientists and experts to help farmers improve their operations as well as with distributors and retailers who help get the farm fresh produce into the grocery stores and to the consumers in new and creative ways.
Access to fresh, local food is an important function of livable communities, and we support the work of organizations like Red Tomato who are focusing on keeping our communities healthy and our farms economically viable.
We are impressed with Red Tomato’s ability to work with and connect farmers, scientists, distributors, retailers and others, and we look forward to seeing them continue to grow their network. We are especially excited about their new and creative Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model with a King’s supermarket here in New Jersey, in which CSA members conveniently pick up their share at the supermarket, so that they can then finish their shopping all in one trip. This model opens the door to more direct farm-to-supermarket purchasing, and it builds opportunities for the consumers and supermarket representatitves to know their farmers and increase their awareness and education about locally-produced foods.
Dodge’s $15,000 grant will help Red Tomato build its capacity in New Jersey and connect with other farm-to-market practitioners and innovators in the region.