CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A new food production center is the latest venture of a nonprofit working to bridge the gap between local farmers and consumers when it comes to healthy food.
Carolina Farm Trust has the goal of creating a regional food system for farmers in the Carolinas to reach more consumers and to increase access to local food.
According to the USDA, food insecurity in North Carolina is at 10.7%, just below national average.
Last month, the nonprofit opened Carolina Farm Trust Market in west Charlotte, which has a commercial kitchen and plans to expand to help cut down on food insecurity.
In the commercial kitchen, CFT Market Executive Chef Ryan Forte uses the local produce in catering orders, private dinners, food truck items and box lunches.
“We help the farmer reach a lot more mouths and hands than they can reach now. They might only be able to go to one or two farm stands that they make it to,” Forte said.
Carolina Farm Trust CEO Zack Wyatt said the nonprofit is also helping remove the transportation barrier some farmers face.
“We are going out and meeting farmers on site, picking up product, delivering it here, and then we distribute out from there, whether it’s in our commercial kitchen or our wholesale customer base,” Wyatt said.
A grocery store is planned for the CFT Market next year. In the meantime, the group is setting a pop-up market.
Shirley Hathcock, who lives in the Hoskins neighborhood, welcomes the farm stand, which is closer than the grocery store.
“It’s closer for me, and it’s harder for me to get out and do things,” Hathcock said.
Her neighborhood is in a food desert. The USDA defines it as an area with 20% poverty rate where a grocery store is more than a mile for a third of the population.
The farm stand aims to help with food insecurity.
“This pop-up is accessible, walking distance for a lot of people, so yeah it’s amazing,” Hoskins Mill HOA President Chris Smalls said.
Smalls looks forward to the grocery store.
Wyatt said the overall goal for this facility to help build a resilient regional food system.
“We’re also trying to utilize this entire facility to jumpstart revenue for our entire regional farming community: North and South Carolina. And it’s really being able to again, increase this to scale so we can work with big institutions, hotels, restaurants, etc., as well as community,” Wyatt said.
Mecklenburg County has five food deserts, and in these areas poor diets can contribute to chronic diseases.
Mecklenburg County and the City of Charlotte pitched in to complete phase 1 of the Carolina Farm Trust Market.
Now the group is raising $17 million for phase 2, which will include a grocery store, a teaching kitchen, event space and a meat processing facility.
The grocery store is expected to open next summer.
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