MN Eats

Connecting Local Food in our Communities

SHIP is partnering with local produce farmers to increase local fruits and vegetable consumption in our local schools and communities. Our goals are to increase farmer partnership through the Willmar Food Hub to fill the gap of farm to school!

Meet Local Farmers:

Toad Hill Farms Pitch Book

Toad Hill Farms Farmer Poster

Bees & Greens Pitch Book

Bees & Greens Farmer Poster

Connect with more local foods and farmers at the Willmar Food Hub

Tokens for Tomatoes

Tokens for Tomatoes (TFT) is a program in our local communities where $2 tokens are given out at various organizations and community events to purchase fresh produce (any fruit or vegetable) at local farmer's markets. TFT launched in May 2018, reaching all five of our counties including Big Stone, Chippewa, Lac qui Parle, Swift, and Yellow Medicine with a total populations of 44,000 people.

The participating farmer's markets include: Kerkhoven, Benson, Appleton, Canby, Madison, Dawson, Granite Falls, Montevideo, Ortonville, and Clara City. The intent of this program is to engage our population at farmer's markets, empower them to make healthy food choices, while driving traffic to our local farmer's markets.

The SHIP program is working to bridge a gap and decrease a barrier through Token's for Tomatoes. A large portion of our community population is kids and seniors, and TFT is designed for everyone to use, at all ages.

"All the vendors that sold vegetables and fruit thought it was a very positive idea to get healthy food to people; they found out all the different produce we had, some which they can not get in the grocery store like kohlrabi and fresh beets and eggplant." - Jan Eifealdt, Big Stone Farmer's Market

TFT is a true collaboration across all five of our counties, reaching several ages and demographics to minimize the gap of rural food access.

"We have a great cross section of age groups along with cultural variety at our market." - Bonita Kluver, Kerkhoven Farmer's Market