Ogallala Commons reestablishing food sheds with Amarillo Area Foundation Grant

AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) — Ogallala Commons received a $240,000 grant from Amarillo Area Foundation in effort to support their Rebuilding Texas Foodsheds project.

“Ogallala Commons is doing a food hub and they convene people who address how to pull in folks that are working with the producers and help them with how they work with those institutions that are providing nutrition for students or other organizations,” said Sarah Griffin Amarillo Area Foundation Director of Grants and Community Investment.

Ogallala Commons Executive Director John Wittler shared they primarily serve rural communities to help build and nurture leaders so their communities can thrive. According to Wittler, Ogallala Commons is partnering with protein producers to reestablish food sheds across the Panhandle.

“Our food hub specifically is meant to help aggregate food,” said Wittler. “One of the ways that it addresses food insecurity, it tackles market access for local producers from two different directions. One, it helps to aggregate the produce, it’s very hard for one small producer to produce the quantity of food for a large contract, but a couple of small producers together are making plenty of that, and so that helps them access that market by aggregating their produce.”

Additionally, Wittler shared institutions have a difficult time from an administrative standpoint managing relationships with 20-50 producers. For institutions it’s more beneficial to go to one food hub and access all the produce from a region, improving accessibility.

“From a food insecurity point of view, it’s a systemic intervention in the food system that really allows for access to fresh food, but also it addresses other social determinants of health,” said Wittler.

According to Wittler, determinants of health include economic prosperity, as many producers are struggling to have viable economic operations.

A requirement of receiving a discretionary grant from AAF is that the project is sustainable. For Ogallala Commons reestablishing food hubs is sustainable and its impact can be measured over the course of several years.

“We have a lot of people who are interested in producing food,” explained Wittler. “Maybe they’re producing vegetables, they’re a backyard gardener, but they’re producing more than they need, and they would like to get some of that food into the food system. There’s a lot of people that are kind of one step up from that, and they would love to make a living with a high tunnel, or at least a side income.”

Wittler shared Ogallala Commons is always looking for producers so that more fresh food is going into communities. Another way the project is sustainable is community involvement.

“We host a number of events in the in the rural communities around the Panhandle that are like local food summits,” said Wittler. “Those types of things are great for people to come out, increase their own knowledge and learn about the growers that are there, how they can support and can connect.

For organizations like school districts, hospitals and senior centers it also provides an opportunity to explore purchasing food from producers in the Panhandle.

For Ogallala Commons receiving the grant from AAF opens up doors to receive funding from the Texas Department of Agriculture, USDA and other grant opportunities, following the support and show of confidence from Amarillo Area Foundation.

Impact and success of the project will be measured by the number of producers they are able to help reach markets and communities.

“Really will be kind of building out the infrastructure of our food hub, as well as doing some educational programming that really provides assistance both for institutions to connect to local food as well as local producers to access those institutional markets and small retail shops,” said Wittler.

To stay up to date with the work Ogallala Commons is doing and learn more about their project reestablishing their food shed, individuals can visit their website.