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A Year of Impact with the Urban Farming Collective Food System

Writer's picture: Chad AndersonChad Anderson

Greetings to our incredible community,


I hope this message finds you well. It has been a true pleasure serving you throughout 2024, marking the inaugural year of the Urban Farming Collective Food System. We have been hard at work developing a system designed to create significant impact through education, food accessibility, and culinary training.



Our goals for this year included hosting a series of community festivals to raise awareness about the food gap within our Black and brown communities and launching our online grocery store in Columbus, Cleveland, and potentially Cincinnati. We recognized from the outset that achieving these aspirations would require long nights, self-funding, and strategic partnerships.


I am thrilled to share that not only have we met these goals, but we have also successfully launched our Medical Clinic in Whitehall, Ohio, through our collaborative efforts.


I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to each of you who have supported us—whether financially or by helping forge relationships with organizations such as 7 Hills Neighborhood House, Atena, CareSource, Molina Healthcare, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Digital C, and many others. Your contributions have been invaluable.



As we reflect on this first year, I am humbled by what we have accomplished together. However, successfully launching any business requires substantial resources and funding. Consequently, we have made the difficult decision to cancel our final festival this year and our stakeholders' mixer. This decision allows us to concentrate on securing the necessary resources, services, and partnerships to open the UFC Food Health Hubs.


We are excited about the opportunity to expand our online store into Cincinnati and enhance our systems in Cleveland and Columbus. To date, we have reached over 10,000 people through our digital platforms, engaged over 1,000 individuals during our Ohio events, and contacted more than 10,000 households through our print outreach campaigns.




As we look toward 2025, we are eager to expand our reach even further. We hope to continue receiving your support, and we invite you to explore new opportunities for collaboration in Columbus, Cincinnati, and Cleveland. I will provide links for you to engage in conversations within your cities and stay connected to our progress.


Our team and I will be reaching out to further discuss how we can collectively address the social determinants of health through our partnerships. If you have any questions or wish to begin or continue our conversation, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me.


Thank you for being a vital part of this journey.


Chad Anderson

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