Hartland Natural Farm is awarded “Rookie of the Year” by Local Food Hub.
by Andrew Hendrickson
One of the things that struck me when I visited Hartland,” said Adrianna Vargo, Director of Grower Services, “was that the quality of the produce was just impeccable. Everything was grown very well, and a lot of care was put into it.”
Hartland Natural Farm was recently awarded the “Rookie of the Year” award from Local Food Hub, an aggregator and distributor of locally grown produce. “Hartland really stood out,” Adrianna continued, “as a farm that was able to start working with us very quickly, produce the quality that we needed, and make adjustments in the way that things were being harvested and packed so that they could meet our specifications. Those were things that were able to be done very quickly and easily.”
One of the things that particularly stood out on her visit was the friendliness of the students and staff. “What really makes the relationship special is that we know these are really good people we’re working with, and they really care about what they’re doing and about their partnership with us.”
Lisa Reeder, the Value Chain Coordinator of Local Food Hub shared her own experience with Hartland. “What we found is that in one year’s time you were able to deliver so many products we had been looking for, and they were properly grown and packaged in a way that was very easy to include in our wholesale distribution.”
Lisa was impressed by the school’s incorporation of agriculture into the curriculum and training of the students. “We can look at what we will do together for next year, and the following year, and the following year, knowing that there will be a program and food production there. The partnership is really worth investing in because we know that great things will come out of it.”
God has blessed our relationship with Local Food Hub. We pray that we may continue to be a blessing in our community.