SPRINGDALE -- Tomatoes, watermelons, cantaloupes, strawberries, blueberries, squash and pumpkins, Dennis McGarrah listed.
McGarrah grows about 30 acres of produce each year on his family farm near Lowell and sells the produce to various local markets with the help of the Northwest Arkansas Food Conservancy.
The conservancy helps the area's small farmers sell, sort and deliver their goods. The program was started in 2019 by the Walton Family Foundation.
The foundation in 2020 announced its Food Systems Initiative with the goal of building a food system in Northwest Arkansas that can serve as a national model for food grown locally, while also supporting the local economy.
The program works to support the role local farmers play in maintaining the food supply chain, particularly during times of crisis such as the covid-19 pandemic.
The Food Conservancy will become one part of the foundation's Market Center of the Ozarks, a $31 million project slated for downtown Springdale.
The Center for Arkansas Farms and Foods at the University of Arkansas will provide education to farmers, and the Northwest Arkansas Land Trust Farmlink will help preserve land for growers.
The Walton Foundation's goal is to get healthy food on Northwest Arkansas dining tables.
The hallmarks of a good food system makes healthy food accessible and affordable, said Diana Endicott, program manager for the Food Conservancy.
Farms and fields
Jonathan McArthur, farm manager and field educator for the Center for Farms and Foods, referred to a 2015 survey finding very few fruit and vegetable farmers in Northwest Arkansas, compared to other growing regions of similar size.
The survey also found more acreage available for growing, but no trained staff to help growers farm it, McArthur said. The lack of workforce can block a farmer's plan for growing the operation.
The Food Conservancy provides education for farmers through the center. Several growers recently completed a U.S. Department of Agriculture food safety certification, which included onsite audits of their farms. The certification allows them to sell to schools and hospitals.
McArthur said the farmers put in 20 hours a week for 11 months and paid $2,100.
The program also has the opportunity to provide in-depth education from the university's Cooperative Extension Service.
"We want to give them a way to produce year-round instead of just during the farmers market season," he said.
The programs can help farmers take their business to the next level, to upscale, to diversify, to grow, Endicott said. Her family grows greenhouse tomatoes in southeastern Kansas, and she started a similar food hub in Kansas City.
"If they live way out, they must have a market and more than 5 acres," Endicott said. "Selling produce at a roadside stand will not cut it."
Endicott said the conservancy buys from 60 farmers within a 200-mile radius of Springdale and is always looking for more. The conservancy sells produce as far away as Joplin, Mo., Harrison, Fort Smith and Siloam Springs, she said.
It also works with buyers to ensure farmers are paid an adequate and fair price.
McGarrah believes locally grown produce is undervalued, he said, but the conservancy helps farmers and buyers developers a price.
Even when the market is low, McGarrah said he still earns enough on his homegrown tomatoes to make a living.
The conservancy sales bring in enough to pay the farmers for their crop, Endicott said. The Walton Family Foundation pays for the staff, the equipment and the building, she added.
The goal with any food hub is to earn 30% over the costs to run the program, Endicott said. But that takes time, she noted.
Boxed, bottled, canned
The Walton Family Foundation wants to reestablish the Northwest Arkansas landscape with small and midsize diversified family farms and food producers and to bring them economic opportunity, the foundation's website reads.
The Center for Farms and Foods was establish to train the next generation of farmers, McArthur said.
Students can be current farmers, people wanting to work on a farm, people who want to start their own farms and even people who want to determine if they like farming before making the investment to start one.
McArthur said the 2015 survey noted the members of the farming community were older. The average age of farmers in Northwest Arkansas is 63, he said.
Endicott and Catherine Snelgrove, the conservancy's manager for sales and marketing, stopped in a conservancy storage room for boxed, bottled and canned products from local residents.
Endicott said the small producers make the product in their own kitchens but don't have room to store it in their living rooms.
"And sometimes they have just one box to be delivered to a store," Snelgrove said. "It's easier for us to put it on our truck already going to the store than for them to come pick it up and drive to the store to deliver it."
A local farmer arrived at the conservancy Tuesday morning with the bed of his pickup filled with ears of corn.
Conservancy staff unloaded the corn into a large cardboard bin and set to sorting it. About 100 plastic bags were lined up in the warehouse. Each bag had two bell peppers and got six ears of corn. Another staff member was packaging blackberries in pint containers to go in the bags.
Endicott explained the bags were for the Community Clinic, which distributes them to families in need. The conservancy fills 200 bags each week with local produce.
The conservancy also supplied food boxes to the Marshallese community during the pandemic.
The conservancy staff packs 100 bags with various fresh produce each week for Harps, which features them as local and sells them for $20.
"That's a lot of food for $20," Endicott said.
She noted the Market Center will include automated processes for cleaning, sorting, packaging and labeling.
The conservancy and the Market Center won't be a stop for general shoppers. The food conservancy will continue to help connect small farmers with new markets like schools, hospitals and restaurants, according to the Walton Family Foundation.
Produce that isn't sold is composted, Snelgrove said.
Time to Farm
McGarrah has been farming near Lowell for some 40 years.
He said he sells produce to 20 locations of Harps Food Stores with delivery of fresh produce two times a week.
"And that doesn't give me much time to farm," he said.
The conservancy staff will pick the food up from the farm for optimal freshness.
"They run store to store, leaving me more time to deal with farm issues," McGarrah said.
In addition to pickup and delivery, the conservancy staff help with sorting, labeling and packing, Endicott said.
Endicott noted some farmers have day jobs and are stretched thin, too busy to contact buyers.
So the conservancy does that, too.