BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — On Tuesday, May 12, the American Broadcasting Company’s (ABC) World News Tonight with David Muir took notice of Brown University men’s water polo players Will Collier (Sr., Darien, Conn./Hopkins School) and Aidan Reilly (Jr., Los Angeles, Calif./Loyola) who created The FarmLink Project to help combat hunger, food waste, unemployment and a whole lot more during the CoronaVirus/COVID-10 pandemic.
In the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King’s quote, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘what are you doing for others?’”, FarmLink is a grassroots movement that won’t let food go to waste during the COVID-19 pandemic. While food banks are facing an unprecedented increase in demand, millions of pounds of produce are being dumped or wasted as commercial farms around the country struggle to adapt to decreased and cancelled orders. The project connects such farms with under-stocked and understaffed food banks. 100% of donations towards FarmLink are used to pay the wages of farm workers and truckers, thereby keeping employees staffed, fresh produce away from dumps and food onto the tables of those who need it most.
Since the group started in April, it has grown to a team of 20 students and recent graduates from University of Southern California, Dartmouth College, Stanford University, the Harvard School of Business and Cornell University, along with a network of volunteers.
So far, the group has moved more than 239,000 pounds of food from farmers to food banks and paid more than $4,500 in wages, according to its website.
“Our goal is to get produce where it is needed most,” said Collier. “No food bank should have to turn people away during this crisis.”
FarmLink is helping to reduce food waste by raising money to purchase the excess food from farmers, and rerouting the deliveries to food bank distributor partners. In April, the group completed its first delivery, which consisted of 50,000 pounds of onions from a farm in Oregon.
Collier said that FarmLink has grown thanks to a mix of the team’s personal and corporate relationships, along with donations— which pays for the wages of farm workers and truckers. The organization also recently partnered with Uber Freight in a deal that helps FarmLink with transports of food.
As of May 8, FarmLink has moved food in Idaho, Oregon, Utah, California, North Carolina, and Virginia and has plans to start working in Texas, Wyoming, New York, Michigan and the New England area. The group is aiming to move at least one million pounds of food by the end of May and five million pounds by the end of the summer.
To donate, visit https://thefarmlinkproject.org/.
For more information on the project, email contact@thefarmlinkproject.org
