As the first week of 2025 came to a close, newspapers around the country were flooded with images of the idyllic seaside Pacific Palisades village in Los Angeles burning to the ground practically overnight. The fire blazed through 14,313 acres on its fastest day – seven and a half football fields a minute, flaring up at 16 times the speed of an average wildfire. The sheer speed and scale of this destruction left a clear message in its wake: our climate crisis is no longer a distant threat. It is here, now, in every other headline and community in the United States. From the wildfires in California, to hurricanes battering the Southeast, to families in the Midwest and Appalachia enduring unrelenting floods and heatwaves, the increasing frequency and intensity of these events is not an anomaly but rather a new reality we are adapting to. Farmlink was born during a crisis. We understand deeply that as infrastructure is destroyed and families are displaced, hunger escalates.
At Farmlink, we see food recovery as more than just an emergency response. It’s a key solution for building regenerative and lasting food systems. We use food recovery to provide immediate hunger relief during both acute disasters (extreme weather events) and the ongoing food insecurity crisis that 44 million Americans face every day. Simultaneously, we tackle the longer-term challenge of rising emissions that exacerbate these extreme weather conditions by preventing food waste at scale before it happens.
Case Study: Helene, Milton, and 50 Million Apples
The necessity of our approach came into sharp focus as Hurricanes Helene and Milton devastated the Southeast in the fall of 2024. The damage was immense: 228 lives lost, hundreds of thousands of people displaced, infrastructure destroyed, and grocery stores either destroyed or inaccessible.
Farmlink saw an opportunity to address not just the immediate crisis but also a pressing issue facing apple growers just north of the destruction in West Virginia. These farmers were facing a surplus of over 20 million pounds of apples due to the loss of processing markets. With no market to sell, these apples were at risk of going to waste.
Farmlink mobilized quickly, partnering with the West Virginia Department of Agriculture, USDA, and local hunger-fighting organizations. Farmlink helped move 18.89 million pounds of apples into communities in need, distributing them to over 37 hunger-fighting organizations across Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, and Georgia. These apples, once seen as a loss to farmers, became a vital resource for communities facing food insecurity and provided an economic lifeline for farmers on the brink of financial ruin. As one farmer put it, “Without you all, we wouldn’t be here. Without Farmlink, we’d be picking apples just to put them in a pile and burn them.”
Our disaster relief efforts are not just enabled, but strengthened, by our vast network of hunger-fighting organizations deeply connected to the communities they serve. These partners reach even the most rural and isolated families. After Hurricane Helene, one organization took food the last mile by mule when roads were destroyed..
One story shared by a food bank that served over 21,000 people using rescued produce stands out: “One special moment that has stayed with me is when an older gentleman walked up to me and asked if he might have some food. As I handed him an apple, he took a bite, tears filling his eyes—he hadn’t had anything fresh in over a week.” A volunteer then drove him home to his wife, who was too afraid to leave their house since the hurricane flooding.
This wasn’t just a quick fix–it was a paradigm shift in how we can solve food insecurity and support the 1.9 million American farmers. By fostering intentional relationships with university agriculture extension programs and independent hunger-fighting charities and taking coordinated action, we functioned like a living, dynamic system. One grower’s surplus became another community’s lifeline, expanding our understanding of food recovery from a reactive measure into an active and regenerative model that builds new networks to support all stakeholders.
Building Long-Term Resilience
But the work doesn’t stop at disaster relief. The climate crisis is an ongoing challenge that will continue to strain our food systems and beloved communities. As droughts, heatwaves, floods, and further disruptions continue to become more frequent, our food system and global supply chain will continue to be tested.
At Farmlink, we believe in balancing immediate action with long-term change. While we focus on addressing today’s hunger demands by redistributing the abundance of food, we’re also setting the groundwork for a more resilient future. Proactive measures, such as harvesting crops before extreme weather events like floods or droughts, help preserve the value of food grown and prevent it from going to waste. In its current form, our work prevents waste and associated emissions, feeds communities, and relieves some of the pressure on tomorrow’s systems.
Simultaneously, we’re learning as we go to imagine a better system, fostering relationships with people who also want to eliminate food insecurity in their communities, and testing ideas that transform the food system, redefine food access, and breed resilience. It’s a continuous process of meeting today’s basic needs while investing in a future of food that is humane, convenient and reciprocal with the natural world.
A Call for a Better Future
Farmlink cannot do this alone. The effects of climate change are felt ubiquitously across the planet, which means the effort to fight what causes it and create a thriving alternative, must be equally far-reaching in its impact.
Food is the thread that ties us all together, making it the most powerful place to stitch a new pattern. When fresh food is wasted, it doesn’t just disappear. It becomes a force that harms the planet and disrupts lives. But what if we could change that? Every pound of food saved and redirected to a hardworking individual is not just a victory over hunger and waste, but also an act of global solidarity – a small yet profound step towards the resilient and compassionate future we can create if we choose to believe in it.
Farmlink envisions a dynamic, collaborative, and community-oriented food system that improves national social and environmental security. Food recovery is a critical piece of the puzzle – not just as a response to hunger, but as a unifying force that supports farmers, nourishes families, and heals our planet.
If you’d like to learn more about our sustainability work, follow along with our Blog series covering stories of how climate is impacting communities and the global food system and Farmlink’s role in it. You can also check out our Sustainability page to learn more and support our sustainability work.
< Back
As the first week of 2025 came to a close, newspapers around the country were flooded with images of the idyllic seaside Pacific Palisades village in Los Angeles burning to the ground practically overnight. The fire blazed through 14,313 acres on its fastest day – seven and a half football fields a minute, flaring up at 16 times the speed of an average wildfire. The sheer speed and scale of this destruction left a clear message in its wake: our climate crisis is no longer a distant threat. It is here, now, in every other headline and community in the United States. From the wildfires in California, to hurricanes battering the Southeast, to families in the Midwest and Appalachia enduring unrelenting floods and heatwaves, the increasing frequency and intensity of these events is not an anomaly but rather a new reality we are adapting to. Farmlink was born during a crisis. We understand deeply that as infrastructure is destroyed and families are displaced, hunger escalates.
At Farmlink, we see food recovery as more than just an emergency response. It’s a key solution for building regenerative and lasting food systems. We use food recovery to provide immediate hunger relief during both acute disasters (extreme weather events) and the ongoing food insecurity crisis that 44 million Americans face every day. Simultaneously, we tackle the longer-term challenge of rising emissions that exacerbate these extreme weather conditions by preventing food waste at scale before it happens.
Case Study: Helene, Milton, and 50 Million Apples
The necessity of our approach came into sharp focus as Hurricanes Helene and Milton devastated the Southeast in the fall of 2024. The damage was immense: 228 lives lost, hundreds of thousands of people displaced, infrastructure destroyed, and grocery stores either destroyed or inaccessible.
Farmlink saw an opportunity to address not just the immediate crisis but also a pressing issue facing apple growers just north of the destruction in West Virginia. These farmers were facing a surplus of over 20 million pounds of apples due to the loss of processing markets. With no market to sell, these apples were at risk of going to waste.
Farmlink mobilized quickly, partnering with the West Virginia Department of Agriculture, USDA, and local hunger-fighting organizations. Farmlink helped move 18.89 million pounds of apples into communities in need, distributing them to over 37 hunger-fighting organizations across Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, and Georgia. These apples, once seen as a loss to farmers, became a vital resource for communities facing food insecurity and provided an economic lifeline for farmers on the brink of financial ruin. As one farmer put it, “Without you all, we wouldn’t be here. Without Farmlink, we’d be picking apples just to put them in a pile and burn them.”
Our disaster relief efforts are not just enabled, but strengthened, by our vast network of hunger-fighting organizations deeply connected to the communities they serve. These partners reach even the most rural and isolated families. After Hurricane Helene, one organization took food the last mile by mule when roads were destroyed..
One story shared by a food bank that served over 21,000 people using rescued produce stands out: “One special moment that has stayed with me is when an older gentleman walked up to me and asked if he might have some food. As I handed him an apple, he took a bite, tears filling his eyes—he hadn’t had anything fresh in over a week.” A volunteer then drove him home to his wife, who was too afraid to leave their house since the hurricane flooding.
This wasn’t just a quick fix–it was a paradigm shift in how we can solve food insecurity and support the 1.9 million American farmers. By fostering intentional relationships with university agriculture extension programs and independent hunger-fighting charities and taking coordinated action, we functioned like a living, dynamic system. One grower’s surplus became another community’s lifeline, expanding our understanding of food recovery from a reactive measure into an active and regenerative model that builds new networks to support all stakeholders.
Building Long-Term Resilience
But the work doesn’t stop at disaster relief. The climate crisis is an ongoing challenge that will continue to strain our food systems and beloved communities. As droughts, heatwaves, floods, and further disruptions continue to become more frequent, our food system and global supply chain will continue to be tested.
At Farmlink, we believe in balancing immediate action with long-term change. While we focus on addressing today’s hunger demands by redistributing the abundance of food, we’re also setting the groundwork for a more resilient future. Proactive measures, such as harvesting crops before extreme weather events like floods or droughts, help preserve the value of food grown and prevent it from going to waste. In its current form, our work prevents waste and associated emissions, feeds communities, and relieves some of the pressure on tomorrow’s systems.
Simultaneously, we’re learning as we go to imagine a better system, fostering relationships with people who also want to eliminate food insecurity in their communities, and testing ideas that transform the food system, redefine food access, and breed resilience. It’s a continuous process of meeting today’s basic needs while investing in a future of food that is humane, convenient and reciprocal with the natural world.
A Call for a Better Future
Farmlink cannot do this alone. The effects of climate change are felt ubiquitously across the planet, which means the effort to fight what causes it and create a thriving alternative, must be equally far-reaching in its impact.
Food is the thread that ties us all together, making it the most powerful place to stitch a new pattern. When fresh food is wasted, it doesn’t just disappear. It becomes a force that harms the planet and disrupts lives. But what if we could change that? Every pound of food saved and redirected to a hardworking individual is not just a victory over hunger and waste, but also an act of global solidarity – a small yet profound step towards the resilient and compassionate future we can create if we choose to believe in it.
Farmlink envisions a dynamic, collaborative, and community-oriented food system that improves national social and environmental security. Food recovery is a critical piece of the puzzle – not just as a response to hunger, but as a unifying force that supports farmers, nourishes families, and heals our planet.
If you’d like to learn more about our sustainability work, follow along with our Blog series covering stories of how climate is impacting communities and the global food system and Farmlink’s role in it. You can also check out our Sustainability page to learn more and support our sustainability work.
< BackThe Hidden Link Between Food Waste and Natural Disasters
As the first week of 2025 came to a close, newspapers around the country were flooded with images of the idyllic seaside Pacific Palisades village in Los Angeles burning to the ground practically overnight. The fire blazed through 14,313 acres on its fastest day – seven and a half football fields a minute, flaring up at 16 times the speed of an average wildfire. The sheer speed and scale of this destruction left a clear message in its wake: our climate crisis is no longer a distant threat. It is here, now, in every other headline and community in the United States. From the wildfires in California, to hurricanes battering the Southeast, to families in the Midwest and Appalachia enduring unrelenting floods and heatwaves, the increasing frequency and intensity of these events is not an anomaly but rather a new reality we are adapting to. Farmlink was born during a crisis. We understand deeply that as infrastructure is destroyed and families are displaced, hunger escalates.
At Farmlink, we see food recovery as more than just an emergency response. It’s a key solution for building regenerative and lasting food systems. We use food recovery to provide immediate hunger relief during both acute disasters (extreme weather events) and the ongoing food insecurity crisis that 44 million Americans face every day. Simultaneously, we tackle the longer-term challenge of rising emissions that exacerbate these extreme weather conditions by preventing food waste at scale before it happens.
Case Study: Helene, Milton, and 50 Million Apples
The necessity of our approach came into sharp focus as Hurricanes Helene and Milton devastated the Southeast in the fall of 2024. The damage was immense: 228 lives lost, hundreds of thousands of people displaced, infrastructure destroyed, and grocery stores either destroyed or inaccessible.
Farmlink saw an opportunity to address not just the immediate crisis but also a pressing issue facing apple growers just north of the destruction in West Virginia. These farmers were facing a surplus of over 20 million pounds of apples due to the loss of processing markets. With no market to sell, these apples were at risk of going to waste.
Farmlink mobilized quickly, partnering with the West Virginia Department of Agriculture, USDA, and local hunger-fighting organizations. Farmlink helped move 18.89 million pounds of apples into communities in need, distributing them to over 37 hunger-fighting organizations across Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, and Georgia. These apples, once seen as a loss to farmers, became a vital resource for communities facing food insecurity and provided an economic lifeline for farmers on the brink of financial ruin. As one farmer put it, “Without you all, we wouldn’t be here. Without Farmlink, we’d be picking apples just to put them in a pile and burn them.”
Our disaster relief efforts are not just enabled, but strengthened, by our vast network of hunger-fighting organizations deeply connected to the communities they serve. These partners reach even the most rural and isolated families. After Hurricane Helene, one organization took food the last mile by mule when roads were destroyed..
One story shared by a food bank that served over 21,000 people using rescued produce stands out: “One special moment that has stayed with me is when an older gentleman walked up to me and asked if he might have some food. As I handed him an apple, he took a bite, tears filling his eyes—he hadn’t had anything fresh in over a week.” A volunteer then drove him home to his wife, who was too afraid to leave their house since the hurricane flooding.
This wasn’t just a quick fix–it was a paradigm shift in how we can solve food insecurity and support the 1.9 million American farmers. By fostering intentional relationships with university agriculture extension programs and independent hunger-fighting charities and taking coordinated action, we functioned like a living, dynamic system. One grower’s surplus became another community’s lifeline, expanding our understanding of food recovery from a reactive measure into an active and regenerative model that builds new networks to support all stakeholders.
Building Long-Term Resilience
But the work doesn’t stop at disaster relief. The climate crisis is an ongoing challenge that will continue to strain our food systems and beloved communities. As droughts, heatwaves, floods, and further disruptions continue to become more frequent, our food system and global supply chain will continue to be tested.
At Farmlink, we believe in balancing immediate action with long-term change. While we focus on addressing today’s hunger demands by redistributing the abundance of food, we’re also setting the groundwork for a more resilient future. Proactive measures, such as harvesting crops before extreme weather events like floods or droughts, help preserve the value of food grown and prevent it from going to waste. In its current form, our work prevents waste and associated emissions, feeds communities, and relieves some of the pressure on tomorrow’s systems.
Simultaneously, we’re learning as we go to imagine a better system, fostering relationships with people who also want to eliminate food insecurity in their communities, and testing ideas that transform the food system, redefine food access, and breed resilience. It’s a continuous process of meeting today’s basic needs while investing in a future of food that is humane, convenient and reciprocal with the natural world.
A Call for a Better Future
Farmlink cannot do this alone. The effects of climate change are felt ubiquitously across the planet, which means the effort to fight what causes it and create a thriving alternative, must be equally far-reaching in its impact.
Food is the thread that ties us all together, making it the most powerful place to stitch a new pattern. When fresh food is wasted, it doesn’t just disappear. It becomes a force that harms the planet and disrupts lives. But what if we could change that? Every pound of food saved and redirected to a hardworking individual is not just a victory over hunger and waste, but also an act of global solidarity – a small yet profound step towards the resilient and compassionate future we can create if we choose to believe in it.
Farmlink envisions a dynamic, collaborative, and community-oriented food system that improves national social and environmental security. Food recovery is a critical piece of the puzzle – not just as a response to hunger, but as a unifying force that supports farmers, nourishes families, and heals our planet.
If you’d like to learn more about our sustainability work, follow along with our Blog series covering stories of how climate is impacting communities and the global food system and Farmlink’s role in it. You can also check out our Sustainability page to learn more and support our sustainability work.
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