Community Giving: Flood Relief & Viva's New Truck

Co-op Donates to Flood Relief

In December, Western Washington was hit with some of the most severe flooding our region has seen in years, and several farms and farmers in Skagit Valley were impacted by this historic flooding: fields underwater, equipment damaged, and livelihoods upended.

Three very familiar local organizations—Skagit Community Foundation (SCF), Northwest Agriculture Business Center (NABC), and Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland (SPF)—collaborated to create a flood relief program to help local farmers. We’re happy to share that the Co-op has donated  $5,000 to the fund to support Skagit farms!

These funds will go directly to Skagit County agricultural producers to assist with flood damage that isn’t covered by insurance or government programs. That said, 64 farms across Skagit County applied for assistance, requesting a total of $537,000 in recovery funding, and the funding gap is over $400,000. 

If you are interested in donating, please visit NABC’s website: agbizcenter.org

Growing Good Fund: Viva Farms Refrigerated Truck

Viva Farms’ refrigerated truck. Photo by Colin Quirt

The Skagit Valley Food Co-op selected Viva Farms as the first Growing Good Fund recipient in 2023, and has since donated a total of $300,000 to Viva Farms through the fund. The Board of Trustees announced earlier in the year that we would again be donating to Viva Farms—this time $25,000 to help fund the purchase of a new refrigerated truck.

In its application for funding, Viva Farms explained that a reliable truck is key to providing historically underserved farmers The Essentials: bilingual training as well as access to land, infrastructure and equipment, markets, capital, and community, and in this case, an updated piece of equipment will directly support access to markets via the aggregation and distribution of produce to the local community. Viva has been operating two older refrigerated trucks that have become increasingly unreliable and costly to maintain. Purchasing a new reliable refrigerated truck is essential to strengthening our regional food system and supporting everyone along the supply chain who depend on safe, consistent delivery—including you! Viva Farms distributes its CSA and wholesale product up and down the I-5 corridor from South Seattle to Bellingham, and west to Anacortes; as a Co-op, we are helping to not only make this possible, but also more efficient.

The good news is Viva Farms has found and purchased a refrigerated market delivery truck with support from the Co-op and Washington State Department of Agriculture! The truck allows Viva Farms to address a central barrier to growth in the Skagit program: distribution and cold chain capacity. Without increased distribution capacity, farmers are constrained in how much they can grow and where they can sell. An updated refrigerated truck expands the ability to aggregate produce from farmers in the Incubator and AgPark, and farms that have launched off site. Many of these launched farms continue to use Viva’s sales and distribution program as a key market channel. Additional transportation capacity means more farmers farming, more acres in production, and feeding more Skagit community members. This investment helps build a distribution system that supports growth for both current and future farmers.