Serving Our Neighbors

Back in March, when students across college campuses could not return to their classes and dorms, Courtney Bond (granddaughter of Bill Bond) and her friends from Stanford and Brown could not ignore the pleas coming from local food banks facing food shortages.

Courtney and her friends found a way to connect farmers with surpluses directly to food banks, saving millions of pounds of food from going to waste and ensuring those impacted by the covid-19 crisis had access to nutritious produce.

In just 6 months, the work of these students grew into Farmlink, which has since delivered over 12 million pounds of food from 58 farms in 20 states to 201 food banks in 39 states!

Reflecting on her experiencing, Courtney shared with me the top two things she has learned: 

1. Don't let "no" stop you. People have called us "young" and "inexperienced" -- we have been told "no" many times. However, by staying resilient, we have succeeded and accomplished more than what we ever thought we could.

2. There is still so much work to do. One-third of all food grown on earth is wasted. To date, Farmlink has rescued 11 million pounds of produce. Although we are so proud of reaching this number, we realize that we are far from being done and are excited to continue to reduce food waste and food insecurity in the United States.

Click here to read the full origin story of Farmlink and visit their website to get up-to-date information on their impact and how you can support their work!