Bringing Fresh, Local Food to Kentuckians in Need
Kentucky’s struggling families need increased access to fresh, nutritious food. According to Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap 2025 report, over 753,000 Kentuckians, or 16.6% of the state population, do not always know where their next meal will come from. This number includes one in five (21.1%) of Kentucky’s children.
Limited access to affordable, healthy food contributes to Kentucky’s high rates of obesity. Kentucky has the tenth highest adult obesity rate in the nation and the thirteenth highest obesity rate for youth ages 6 to 17 (State of Obesity 2025).
The Farms to Food Banks program is supported through appropriations from Kentucky’s Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement Fund and administered by the Kentucky Department of Agriculture and the Kentucky General Assembly.
Farms to Food Banks funds are used to help cover Kentucky farmers’ costs to harvest, package and transport excess and #2 produce to food banks or food pantries. The produce is distributed to hungry Kentuckians throughout the state through the Feeding Kentucky network.
Program Impact
Since the program’s statewide launch in 2011, Farms to Food Banks has resulted in more than 40.9 million pounds of Kentucky-grown produce distributed to Kentuckians facing hunger in all 120 counties rather than going to waste. This equates to more than 68 million servings of fruits and vegetables distributed across the Commonwealth.
In 2025, we worked with 301 Kentucky farmers to supplement more than 3.6 million pounds of produce for hungry Kentuckians and receiving an average of $5,305 per farm family.
