The Walton Family Foundation investment in the 45,000 square foot Market of the Ozarks in Springdale, with its $31 million budget, is designed to give area farmers the facility they need to process and sell their produce locally.
The foundation expects to break ground on the new building before the end of June and open in early 2024. Its is one of several ongoing efforts in Northwest Arkansas, which also receive funding from the Walton foundation, to support local farmers in the region.
"We're trying to think creatively about products that can be made from locally grown foods and help our farmers grow and scale production, become financially viable and at the same time, can provide healthy food year-round for our residents," said Karin Endy, advisor to the foundation's Northwest Arkansas Food Systems initiative.
Many Northwest Arkansas farmers grow produce on one acre or less and are selling direct to the consumer at farmers' markets, Endy said. "So we had this problem that they weren't big enough farms to sell into wholesale channels and because there wasn't enough food being grown locally -- specifically fruits and vegetables -- it really wouldn't be a viable business for anyone to come in and set up a business being a local produce aggregator," she said.
"The goal is to get more local food on local tables, and to provide local food where people typically live, eat and shop, so that it's not just a farmers' market," Endy said.
The market is expected to do three things: to provide warehouse space, multi-zone cold storage to aggregate and distribute locally grown produce, and a produce processing room to package food for school lunch trays or frozen vegetable blends that can be used by institutional food service providers, said
Farmers typically must have top-quality produce to sell to wholesale markets and supermarkets, and second-grade, or ugly produce, gets overlooked. Demand for certain produce could also change, leaving growers with a surplus.
There will be shared use commercial kitchens for food entrepreneurs, or people who had home-based food businesses who want to scale up and move to commercial settings. This could help very small, local food businesses who may be lower-income, Endy said.
The kitchen space may also be used for community-focused food education classes, particularly when not in use by food entrepreneurs, such as during evenings and weekends, she said.
Along the side of the building where there are biking and walking trails, an outdoor courtyard area may also be used for community activities, such as food or arts focused events. Food entrepreneurs can use the space to maintain their food trucks, though food trucks will not be parked there on a regular basis for business.
The Food Conservancy, a nonprofit food hub, is in its second year of of a two-year grant from the Walton Foundation to aggregate produce from local farms. The Food Conservancy also provides agriculture education.
Endy said she anticipates the farmers already working with the Food Conservancy will take part in the market.
"We're trying to create a system; how food is grown, processed, transported, gets to market, and make sure that system works effectively, that our small farms are growing, that they have access to wholesale channels, that food is being delivered into the community so everybody has access to it," Endy said.
FOOD CONSERVANCY
Food Conservancy Director Diana Endicott said the goal is to create more opportunities to benefit farmers.
"Without having the market and without having that value added, the risk is all falling back on the farmer," she said. "So this gives them a vision of what Northwest Arkansas opportunities there are for them, and I think that's really vital."
The market may expand initiatives the Food Conservancy is already working on, and could help with the demand the conservancy is already getting to help more growers sell their produce.
Products farmers make at the market can also go to the conservancy to be distributed: "We would be able to put that out on our fresh list or our local list, and people would be able to order it," Endicott said.
The Food Conservancy program started bare bones without a facility or farmers in Northwest Arkansas years ago with the goal of purchasing and selling produce from area growers to help re-establish a local food system.
About 16 farmers participated in 2020. The conservancy purchased from 54 farmers in north Arkansas in 2021 and that number is still growing, program director Diana Endicott said.
"We're kind of overwhelmed with the number of people requesting to sell this year," she said.
Growers like Dennis McGarrah, who operates a family farm with 160 acres and works with the conservancy, present another side of the issue, of aging Arkansas farmers who are reducing their workloads.
At 65 years old, McGarrah said he is considering downsizing his operations.
"We've got to get more young farmers involved," McGarrah said.
McGarrah's family operation produces 40 to 50 acres of crops per year; tomatoes, strawberries, blackberries, watermelons and cantaloupes. The family farm hosts a fall pumpkin patch festival and a strawberry festival to sell their produce and also sell a farmer's market, but McGarrah said the Conservancy has helped particularly with his surplus tomatoes.
"They have really been a big help to me, with my tomato sales, instead of me having to run to all the grocery stores, I've been in business with Harp's for about 40 years now,"McGarrah said. "When you're out going store to store delivering, you don't have any time to do anything on the farm."
The conservancy has an aggregation and distribution facility with refrigeration capacity and trucks, sales and marketing staff and warehouse space, in Springdale. The conservancy aims to purchase and sell the produce to institutions, schools, distributors, retailers and restaurants.
The conservancy evaluates market demand for certain produce, and their customers' needs, to determine what they will need from farmers. The farmer sets the price, then the conservancy tries to sell the produce at that price. They try to keep produce grading and packaging on the farms. Conservancy workers will inspect the produce at the facility, then ship it to customers, such as Harp's supermarket chain, KT Produce local produce distributor, Allen's grocery store and Northwest Arkansas Children's Hospital.
Endicott said these efforts can serve as a model that can be used elsewhere in Arkansas. Endicott said she planned to meet with someone soon from Little Rock interested in establishing an aggregation and distribution facility in the state capital area.
"Because you have the food processing and because you have the support system here with the Walton family, it's definitely going to change the landscape, but at the same time, it's also going to benefit all of Arkansas, because it's developing the infrastructure and the model," she said.
"I really feel this is a good change, these folks coming in here trying to get this fired up," McGarrah added. "Also, it does people good to know that they're eating local, they know their farmers," McGarrah said.
The Arkansas Department of Agriculture and the Walton Family Foundation also recently announced a partnership to offer the Arkansas Grown Grant pilot program offering 30 northwest Arkansas farmers in Benton, Washington, Madison and Carroll counties up to $15,000 in grant funding to commit to increasing capacity to grow wholesale fruits and vegetables for local markets.
The application and more information is available at https://bit.ly/3LOkIyI.