Plant It Forward

Through our Food Hub we connect farmers to fair markets by facilitating sales through the PIF Farm Share (also known as Community Supported Agriculture/CSA), and at local farmers markets. We support farmer enterprises by providing marketing support and direct marketing services for goods sold through our Food Hub. We also aggregate and distribute farm produce to the local community, including through food access partners like the Houston Food Bank. In FY23 we implemented significant improvements within the Food Hub space, including installing walk-in cold storage and purchases of other equipment which is used by PIFs farmer network on a weekly basis.

Urban Farming Program (formerly known as farm services program): We believe urban farms are an essential component of Houstons landscape. We support urban farms by managing four urban farm sites, which are leased to 8 farming entities. In addition to funding shared site services and essential equipment for farmers, we link the community to these farms so they can experience their food first hand and meet their farmers through hands-on volunteer work days and other community engagement events.

Farmer Education Program. We provide business and agricultural training to a network of over 60 growers in the Houston region. Training includes individualized coaching, provision of workshops and demonstrations, and scholarship opportunities which enable network farmers to participate in state-wide professional development opportunities like conferences.