LINC Works To Help Farmers Help Their Neighbors

Food assistance and donations are typically thought of as something for the holiday season, helping those less fortunate have a better Christmas and start the New Year on a better foot.  But in this economy, more and more Americans, whether that’s single individuals or families, are relying on food banks for supplementation, all their food needs, or something in the middle.

To help the Washington farming community provide fresh, healthy, locally grown products, is the Local Inland Northwest Cooperative, better known as LINC.  Brian Estes LINC President, said producers statewide want to help meet the needs of their communities, as well as help other understand how modern-day agriculture works.

"One of the things that we're able to do is provide not just a great diversity of fresh produce, but a real focus on this exceptional quality and freshness, especially for those highly perishable items that can be a real struggle to integrate into the emergency food supply chain,” Estes said.

LINC Covers Much Of The Inland Northwest

He noted they work with producers across much of central and eastern Washington, from the Okanogan to the L/C Valley, to the Columbia Basin and all points in between.  Estes added they focus a lot of their effort on supporting and celebrating small and mid-sized producers.

“It is a pretty unconventional approach that we've taken over the years, where instead of us focusing on one specific commodity, it's... saying we want to work with growers who are interested in seeing their product utilized right here in the region, where those producers are interested in the households who are, end up being the consumers of what they're growing, knowing who the farmer is behind those products, something that we do when we're, you know, shipping produce is the farm identity is carried through to whomever the recipient is," Estes said.  "And that's something we do across our operations.”

Estes noted having such a large footprint to work with has many advantages, as well as a few challenges.

Click Here to learn more about LINC, what they do to help meet hunger needs in the Pacific Northwest, or how you as an induvial growers can get involved.

If you have a story idea for the PNW Ag Network, call (509) 547-1618, or e-mail glenn.vaagen@townsquaremedia.com