Grow Youngstown gets fed grant

October 9, 2014 at 12:02a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

A local nonprofit organization has received a $97,000 share of a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to increase access to locally grown and produced agricultural products and develop new market opportunities for local farm operations.

“Farmers need to know they have a stable market,” Elsa Higby said during a news conference Wednesday at the offices of the NYO Property Group, 16 Wick Ave., downtown Youngstown.

Higby, director of Grow Youngstown, announced that the money will fund the Farm to YOU Boost campaign, a two-year effort to assist farm operations serving low-income residents in Mahoning and Trumbull counties, as well as to increase consumption of and better access to such locally grown and marketed products.

The six-year-old Grow Youngstown group promotes a healthful, economically viable and interdependent local food system, Higby said.

Farm to YOU is the organization’s community-supported agriculture market.

Grow Youngstown has six pickup sites for produce, so the grant also will improve the organization’s technology and ability to streamline its system, Higby explained, noting that in a typical year, GY works with about 30 farmers on 25 source farms that are within a 30-mile radius of Warren.

This year, the organization has seen about $61,000 in sales, noted Jack Kravitz, GY’s board vice president.

The group has formed six partnerships that include the Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley, the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County and the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp., said Kravitz, who also owns Kravitz Delicatessen in Liberty.