By TIM THORNBERRY
Kentucky Correspondent

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Despite a tough economic climate, the state’s agricultural industry is still strong to the tune of $4 billion in annual cash receipts.

Kentucky farmers continue to produce and many can do so because of help from the Kentucky Agricultural Development Fund (KADF.)
The fund was created by way of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement, which brought a landmark settlement paid by tobacco companies to the state. Half of those have been used to help farmers face the changes that have besieged them over the last decade.

That change includes going from a state with 40,000 tobacco farms to less than 8,000 at last count and the number continues to fall.
With that in mind, rural communities were feeling the effects of the new ag environment. But diversification projects, many of which were created through the use of ag development funds have contributed to keeping families on their farms and rural communities surviving.

According to a University of Kentucky study conducted in 2007, for every dollar invested in s KADF-funded state projects up to that point, there was $1.87 in new farm income generated.
The fund has helped agriculture in Kentucky become more diverse than perhaps at any other time through a myriad of sustainable projects and programs.

One true example involves a piece of legislation known as the Farm to Food Banks (FTFB) bill and God’s Pantry Food Bank (GPFB), an organization that serves 50 counties in central and eastern Kentucky and makes food available to agencies that operate soup kitchens, emergency food pantries, senior citizen and youth programs, and any other direct food service to those in need.
Representative Tom McKee from Harrison County, a farmer himself and chair of the House Ag Committee sponsored the bill that essentially would take surplus goods or seconds from state farms and put it on the shelves of food pantries.

Often produce not considered perfect enough for sale venues goes unused even though it is still perfectly good food.

Kristin Ingwell Goode, GPFB development coordinator and FTFB coordinator said the legislation provided the framework for the program to be in place once funded.

“FTFB, the program began in 2009 as a pilot. The intention was never for it to be just our food bank. It was to start it on a smaller scale to see logistically how it works,” she said.

“We approached the Lincoln and Bath County produce auctions first of all because we could reach numerous farmers in one location and secondly because we were really on a short time frame.”
Marian Guinn, chair of the Kentucky Association of Food Banks and CEO of GPFB brought the idea to Ingwell Goode in February of last year with the proposal due to the Agricultural Development Board, which oversees the funds, in March and a planned start date of June.

“We really wanted to reach as many farmers as possible,” said Ingwell Goode. “To do that in such a short time period, the auctions made sense.”

She met with the managers of the two auctions to come up with a price list with the intent of buying “seconds” produce or when a glut occurred in the market, to buy “firsts” at “seconds” prices.

“Our intention is not to buy firsts, but if it is available at a lower price, we’re not going to turn it away,” Ingwell Goode said.
The prices agreed upon were fair to the farmer, but did not compete with retail, she added.

With a weekly budget at each of the auctions, the organization began to purchase produce on June 29, 2009, and did so through December. In some instances, GPFB bought directly from farmers as well.

Budget

The total budget for the year was $125,000 with $60,000 being ag development funds which included varying amounts from Agriculture Development Councils in Bath, Clark, Fayette, Lincoln, Pulaski and Scott counties, while the rest came through matching dollars, a requirement of the grant.

Those matching funds came from organizations that included a Community Service Block Grant from a partnership between the Community Action Council for Lexington-Fayette, Bourbon, Harrison, and Nicholas counties and the Kentucky River Foothills Development Council and Feeding America, a leading domestic hunger-relief charity.

With a structure in place and funding to get started, GPFB has been able to purchase from over 110 different farmers in 31 different counties. Next on the agenda is to secure more funding and take the project statewide. Of the approximately 1,400 family farms that grow produce in the state, Ingwell Goode said the potential exists to purchase from 350 of those farmers for sure with hopes of reaching 700 after the first year or two.

Of course on the flip side are the many families in need of good healthy food. The number of people food banks help has grown in the last few years. A recent independent study revealed that during the course of a year, GPFB reached out to more than 211,300 helping one in seven families in their service area.

“The ag development funds were absolutely integral in getting the program up and running and GPFB sees a huge potential in moving the project forward,” Ingwell Goode said.

Roger Thomas, executive director of the Governor’s Office of Agricultural Policy said the FTFB program is good for many reasons.
“Projects such as ‘Farms to Food Banks’ are win-win projects for the producer and consumer alike. Food bank consumers can have access to fresh, local food and farmers have an additional market for their products,” he said.