High Desert Food & Farm Alliance

Priority 1: Financial stability to support planned growth and long-term success.
Priority 2: An equitable, diverse and inclusive organization and food system.
Priority 3: A healthy, thriving farm and food network.

1. Diversify our funding streams.
2. Strengthen outreach to the broader tri-county community to expand awareness and increase support.
3. Establish a tiered investment portfolio.
4. Increase leadership and representation of under- represented populations in the organization (board, committees, and staff).
5. Educate the public about our region's food system, including appropriate outreach to ensure food security for all.
6. Create a more holistic approach to food access by increasing cross-sector collaboration.
7. Support ongoing efforts to create a regional food system.

HDFFA maintains a staff that oversees our four core programs: Grow & Give, VeggieRx, Agricultural Support and Food & Farm Directory. Our Executive Director works with staff to maintain relationships and outreach to beneficiaries, donors and sponsors as well as grant writing to public and private partners to ensure financial stability of the organization. Staff evaluate programs annually using process and outcome based measures and qualitative and quantitative metrics. Staff continue to evaluate programs with an equity lens through surveys and one on one interactions.

The staff oversee (with one board member) the Farm and Ranch Advisory Committee that provides a feedback loop from program beneficiaries, and are devloping a Food Security Committee.

The Board of Directors oversees the Executive, Fundraising and Finance Committees.

In 2020, we accomplished the following.

1) 13,425 lbs of fresh food collected and donated to the regional food bank, an equivalent of 11,000 meals
2) Offered our fresh produce prescription program, VeggieRx, in Bend, Redmond and Prineville with 188 participants and 479 impacted overall.
3) Provided 775 Fresh Harvest Kits (pantry staple items, farm fresh food, recipes, spices and bags) to local area hunger relief agencies increasing availability of fresh produce by 1,871 lbs to community members.
4) Invested over $25,000 in local farms through our Agriculture Support Programs.
5) Distributed our 9th Annual Food & Farm Directory as part of our regional marketing campaign to foster relationships between agriculture producers, farmers’ markets, local restaurants, institutions, grocers and consumers to 27,000 households.
6) Purchased $22,000 direct from farmers for VeggieRx.
7) Secured $12,500 in grant funds to reimburse farms for donations, offsetting COVID-related lost sales.
8) Develop a 3-year strategic plan with an associated tactical annual work plan for staff and board
9) Secured funding to improve our internal diversity, equity and inclusion policies and procedures