During the summer in the Golden, CO area, you can see a large truck loaded with fresh local produce hosting a pay-what-you-can farmers market. Affectionately known as Chuck, GoFarm’s mobile market truck travels to low-income neighborhoods, schools, nursing homes, mobile home communities, and more. The truck delivers local produce that GoFarm sources from 80 to 90 farms each season, including small urban farms, large family farms, and budding farmers in their incubator program.
Chuck, the mobile delivery truck, in action. Photo courtesy of Lindsey Beatrice
“Our vision is a strong, resilient, environmentally sustainable, and equitable local food system,” said Virginia Ortiz, CEO of GoFarms.
Ortiz sees GoFarm as a hub for the logistics of supporting small farms and providing food to communities.
Building community partnerships is a key element, and GoFarm partners with other food access organizations like Hunger Free Golden and the JeffCo Food Policy Council to reach more people and create a broader resource base.
Founded in 2014, GoFarm started with Share local food program (essentially a CSA curated from many farms). More than a decade later, it has evolved into an organization that trains and develops budding farmers and creatively solves the problem of bringing fresh, affordable food to communities. As a nonprofit, it can raise grants and donations to support its programs and supplement it with revenue from product sales.
GoFarm’s Incubator Farmer Program provides beginning farmers with access to a quarter-acre of land for the two-year program. Farmers receive all the training they need to plan, plant, and manage their farm—regardless of their background.
“The average age of our current farmers is 55 to 59, and we know that in the next 10 years, half of our current farmers will retire, which means we need to develop a new base,” Ortiz said. But she pointed out that there is a “huge need” for agricultural education.
Farmers plant seedlings in an irrigation workshop. Photo courtesy of Lindsey Beatrice
“Part of our goal is to change the model of farm ownership. Right now, in Colorado, there are about 34,000 farms, and only one percent are owned by people of color. Yet 95 to 98 percent of farmworkers are people of color, mostly Latinx,” said Ortiz, who says she comes from a long line of farmers and farmworkers. She says she’s proud that in her farmer development program, 50 percent of participants are people of color, 65 percent are women, and 40 percent identify as LGBTQ+.
Moses Smith of Full farm was an engineer who had been gardening before taking GoFarm’s 20-week course and joining the incubator program. “It was important that the Whole Farm Planning course really focused on what it takes to actually grow food,” Smith said.
“One of the biggest benefits is that not only do they give us access to land, which is very difficult for a new farmer, but they also give us a market path,” said Ann Poteet of Three Owls Farm. As the nursery farmers establish their businesses and learn how to create their own markets, they sell their produce back to GoFarm.
Ann Poteet of Three Owls Farm and Moses Smith of Full Fillment Farms. Photo courtesy of GoFarm
GoFarm’s local food share program provides food to about 500 to 800 members each summer. Members come in weekly to pick up their portions from several different locations, where GoFarm has refrigerated shipping containers to store the food after farmers deliver it. Additionally, GoFarm takes Chuck out into Denver and Jefferson counties weekly to ensure they reach underserved populations facing food insecurity, disabilities, transportation, and other barriers, such as communities living in designated drylands south of Golden.
“I was concerned about the issue of nutritional insecurity,” said Poteet, who was a registered nurse before starting the farm.
“It’s really inspiring” to see her food nourish her community through GoFarm, Smith said.
But farmers market prices can be high, as producers need to be fairly compensated for their efforts and costs. “Customers have made it clear to us that access to healthy food is important to them and affordability is a barrier,” Ortiz says. So in 2022, GoFarm secured the funding it needed to launch a new solution that could improve access for the more than 2,600 households it reaches.
Customers at their mobile markets can choose from three price points to shop for that day, depending on their needs. For example, bags of mixed greens have three price points listed: $2 (purple), $3 (green), and $4 (orange). And sprouts are even cheaper, at $1, $2, or $3 a box. Free-range eggs can cost $3, $5, or $7 a carton.
Flexible pricing signs with Chuck, the mobile delivery truck. Photo courtesy of Lindsey Beatrice
“You are what you eat,” said Kaylee Clinton, a first-time shopper at the GoFarm mobile market. “I just feel better about myself when I eat fresher.” As inflation takes its toll on grocery stores, she said SNAP has made food more affordable, and she appreciates that GoFarm allows shoppers to choose their own price point. “I really like it. I think it’s great for everyone.”
“Usually I buy greens or oranges. I like to buy oranges when I can. It’s nice to have flexible pricing,” said Ed Gazvoda, who has shopped at GoFarm for years. “I want to live a good, long, healthy life, so it’s a personal thing, but I just love the food there.”
Jess Soulis, director of Community Food Access, emphasizes that accepting SNAP’s DoubleUp Food Bucks—where shoppers essentially get a 50 percent discount—is just one way to make food more affordable. The group also partners with WIC’s Farmers Market nutrition program, where participants get credit to shop. Through its market locations at Littleton Advent Hospital and Juanita Nolasco Senior Residences, the program gives shoppers $10 worth of produce for free. SNAP/DUFB accounts for 13 percent of sales at its mobile market, but all of these incentives add up to nearly two-thirds.
“We are building this beautiful, vibrant local food system and we don’t want to replicate the injustice and inequality that is so prevalent in the current food system,” Soulis said.
The vision continues to evolve. The only limitation? “Infrastructure,” Ortiz says. GoFarm is currently looking for cold storage space along the I-70 corridor between Golden and Montbello.
“That area is important because we need to make it accessible to farmers along the Front Range,” Ortiz said. “With that cold storage space, we can easily get more farmers, distribute more food, and serve more communities.”
