The Coastal Conservation League announced today the launch of a search for the next Director of GrowFood Carolina, their highly successful and innovative nonprofit food hub.
GrowFood Carolina is a local food hub providing logistical, sales, marketing, and distribution support to South Carolina’s smallest producers, with the added goal of supporting the conservation of the state’s farmland.
“GrowFood Carolina strengthens our connection to land and the people who feed us,” said Coastal Conservation League Executive Director Faith Rivers James. “The food hub has transformed local and regional food systems and the way our community thinks and talks about food, and how it eats. By linking sustainable agriculture to conservation, and providing critical infrastructure that small growers may themselves lack, GrowFood Carolina is expanding the consumption of and passion for South Carolina-grown food.”
The Director of GrowFood Carolina will be responsible for leading and executing the strategic direction for the food hub and continuing to advance opportunities with local growers, as well as supporters, partners, existing and potential customers, and the general public.
Recognizing an opportunity to answer unchecked growth, conserve productive landscapes, and support small family farms, the Coastal Conservation League launched GrowFood Carolina in 2011. Now, GrowFood Carolina partners with more than 120 farmers collectively harvesting on 10,000 acres. In nearly 13 years, the food hub has sold more than $14 million of local produce, returning $12 million back to South Carolina’s small farmers.
Farmers deliver seasonal, fresh produce and other goods to its Charleston warehouse. From there, GrowFood’s team stores, advertises, and moves locally grown food to the market, serving more than 400 restaurants, major retailers, and large institutions like corporate and college campuses. The nonprofit wholesale food hub now distributes to Charleston, Charlotte, Columbia, Greenville, Hilton Head and Savannah.
The departing lead of the GrowFood program, Anthony Mirisciotta, has been instrumental in expanding GrowFood’s ability to help many more South Carolinians enjoy the gift of healthy, local food.
Under Anthony’s leadership, GrowFood:
- Made great pivots towards food access and nutrition education programming, which has allowed the food hub to distribute nearly 1 million pounds of South Carolina grown food to children and families in need.
- Moved into a new expanded facility that has doubled capacity to better serve South Carolina farmers and communities.
- Designed and implemented a virtual taste test program with over 20,000 students in South Carolina.
- Expanded reach by working with over 150 farmers on nearly 10,000 acres of land.
Anthony will take his dedication and talents to northwest Arkansas where he will assume the position of Executive Director of the Market Center of the Ozarks and Spring Creek Food Hub. Opening next year, the food hub will operate out of the Market Center of the Ozark’s 45,000-square-foot facility which is supported by the Walton Family Foundation.
“We are grateful for Anthony’s service to GrowFood, and appreciative of his leadership in growing South Carolina’s first food hub, which will forever stand as a legacy program for the Coastal Conservation League,” James said.
The GrowFood Director position description can be found here.