Before they were managing a national logistics network that has rescued 450 million pounds of food, Eliza Blank and Kate Nelson were just two kids in Northampton learning the value of a fresh harvest. Today, the Smith College Campus School alums are leading The Farmlink Project, a Los Angeles, California-based nonprofit that works to fight food insecurity by taking food from farmers that would otherwise go unsold and delivering it to food banks.
The Farmlink Project got its start in 2020 — the same year that Nelson graduated from Emerson College in Boston — when members of the founding team were watching COVID-19 pandemic-era news coverage that showed long lines at food banks.
“We were seeing videos of farmers throwing away thousands of pounds of food that looked completely good to eat. That sparked the question in us: ‘Why is this food being thrown away when the need is so great?’ What we did is, we thought, ‘Okay, let’s do something to try to solve this,’” said Nelson, who is the head of brand for The Farmlink Project. “We called a bunch of farmers, and eventually one person said, ‘I’ve got about 40,000 eggs. If you can take them, then you can have them.’”
Aidan Reilly, co-founder and chief of external affairs, and James Kanoff, co-founder and board member, accepted the challenge. The pair rented a U-Haul truck, picked up the massive egg surplus and delivered it to their local food bank.
“Then we did that again and again and again,” Nelson said. “It really just caught on. We were like, ‘Okay, we have this really great method of rescuing the surplus food, and it’s not perfect, but it’s working.’”
Since then, the organization has reportedly rescued more than 450 million pounds of produce that would otherwise have gone to waste. Some elements of their operation have changed, though.
“We don’t drive U-Hauls anymore,” Nelson said.
Instead, the organization now works to coordinate relationships between what they call “food donors” — farmers, wholesalers and distributors — and nonprofits that can accept food donations, such as food banks. Farmlink now pays for the transportation rather than providing it themselves. Their goal is to move 150 million pounds of food or about 5,000 truckloads within the current fiscal year, according to CEO Blank. And just last week, they already moved 4 million pounds, she said.
“We’re very reactive right now,” Nelson said. “We’ll pick up the phone; we’ll move food at any hour of the day every single day of the week, even Christmas, New Year’s, whatever — we’ll move food all the time.”
Community connection
As graduates of the Smith College Campus School, Blank and Nelson even had the same kindergarten teacher, albeit in different years. Blank graduated in 1997, and Nelson graduated in 2010.
“It was really exciting to find out,” Nelson said. “I feel like, when I find out that someone who I know is from Northampton, you instantly are like, ‘Okay, I know a lot more about you. I know that we’re going to get along no matter what.’”
Growing up in the Valley, Nelson and her family turned to the Northampton Survival Center, a local food pantry. The family also frequented the Food Bank Farm in Hadley, where they participated in the community “pick-your-own” harvests. Her upbringing helped root a powerful relationship with food.
“That creates this really intense understanding of, A, where your food comes from, and B, more importantly, how fresh food really tastes different, makes you feel different, how much it matters, and how grounding it is to know where your food comes from and to eat seasonally and eat fresh foods,” she said. “That, ideally, is what Farmlink can help give to people in other places who might not live 10 minutes from a huge farm.”
Growing up in a place like Northampton also “really cultivates ideas and community,” she said. Nelson referenced Viola Davis’ 2016 talk at John M. Greene Hall at Smith College and that it was only 10 minutes from her house.
“Growing up in a place like that makes you feel like anything is possible and makes you feel like that safety net of, ‘Okay, even if this doesn’t go well, I have this community behind me.’ I think that that is really critical, and I think really, honestly, I wouldn’t be here without Northampton having been the place that I am from,” she said.
“A lot of people are attracted to Northampton not only for the academia, but because of its progressiveness,” Blank said, “and yet, there’s this very American quality of being in and around farms that you don’t get if you’re in New York City. I think that’s the amazing quality of Northampton: you’re in nature, you’re in this beautiful ecosystem that appreciates farms and farming and good food, and yet you’re inspired to have big ideas and to push the envelope and to think differently.”
As it turns out, Blank said there are multiple members of The Farmlink Project team who have lived in Northampton, not just herself and Nelson.
“On one hand, that’s crazy. We’re a team of 25 and we’re a national organization with almost half of our team sitting on the West Coast, and yet it doesn’t surprise me,” Blank said. “It makes a lot of sense, given what we do and what we stand for and the ecosystem of Northampton.”
When Blank was a teenager, she had friends who worked at nearby farms while she worked at restaurants on Main Street in Northampton that have since closed. She recalled hearing a coworker, an adult member of the waitstaff, talk about how he had to rely on the Northampton Survival Center. It struck a chord.
“I was thinking, ‘Here’s a person who’s fully employed, who I work with, who I feel is a peer of mine and works in hospitality in the food system, and is still relying on Northampton Survival Center to get through the week.’ I think a lot of this played into how I find myself feeling very inspired by and at home in the work we do at Farmlink,” she said.
The organization’s website also has a tie to its founders’ upbringing, in a different sense: their “Meet the Full Time Team” page prominently features the staff’s baby pictures.
“Anyone can step up and solve a problem, and you don’t need to have the perfect headshot,” Nelson said. “You don’t need to have the perfect background to do it, and I think it’s all mindset. One of our values is that we’re forever students, and I think we really want people to know that a bunch of young people started this company, and at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter who you are, and if you see a problem and you want to solve it, then you should try.”
For more information about The Farmlink Project, visit farmlinkproject.org.