Bridging the gap between health, community and local food for all in Rome.
Our Farm Bus is a mobile farmers market, taking fresh, locally grown food across Rome. We believe that growing and sharing healthy, high-quality food is central to meeting the needs of our most vulnerable neighbors.
Each purchase at the Farm Bus helps us:
- Increase (healthy) food access across our community;
- Create financial incentives for local farmers/producers to offer their food across our community regardless of socioeconomic status.
Click here to see this year’s Farm Bus Schedule.
The connection between a homeless shelter and local food systems (i.e. a community garden, a farm, and farm bus) may not appear initially obvious. For those experiencing generational poverty, however, homelessness, unemployment, and food insecurity remain ever present concerns. Food security and housing security are intimately intertwined, and often families in extreme poverty are given the impossible task of choosing between the two.
Food Insecurity in Floyd County
Feeding America estimates that there are 14,810 food insecure people in Floyd County, GA , which adds up to roughly 15% of our population. In addition, even those who may have access to food may lack access to fresh and healthy options. According to the USDA’s Economic Research Center, the three Census tracts where our facilities are located are all low-income low-access food deserts over a mile from the nearest supermarket. Up to 23% of households near the men’s shelter lack a vehicle and live over a mile from the closest supermarket.
What We Are Doing
We began helping shelter guests develop the tools to address food insecurity once they left the shelter in 2016 by establishing a community garden. In 2019, we partnered with the South Rome Alliance to launch the South Meadows Farm, a 2-acre vegetable farm intended to produce more vegetables in this low-income neighborhood while providing employment opportunities for shelter guests.
Later in 2019, we began the Davies Farm Bus Project, a mobile farmers market, which aims to increase food access for low-income, low-access segments of Floyd County. We currently partner with churches, nonprofits and businesses who function as hosts for the Davies Farm Bus, a mobile farmers market, four days a week from May through October. The produce on the Farm Bus is subsidized by private donations to lower the price at two thirds of host sites that are in low-income, low-access neighborhoods.
Join Us!
By buying produce from the Davies Farm Bus at any of our weekly stops, and telling your friends to do the same, you help alleviate the burden of food insecurity and support access to fresh, affordable food for our most vulnerable neighbors.
We believe that growing and sharing healthy, high-quality food is central to meeting the needs of our most vulnerable neighbors. Each purchase at the Farm Bus helps us: increase (healthy) food access across our community; sustain our work, particularly our farming program; and create partnerships with other local producers to meet the needs of our community.