ALPHARETTA, Ga. — A $75,000 grant is helping the city of Alpharetta put together an “agriculture plan” to provide residents access to locally grown food. The grant, which comes from the Food Well Alliance and the Atlanta Regional Commission, would make the north Fulton County city the second in metro Atlanta to come up with a locally grown food plan.
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Channel 2′s Kristen Holloway visited Old Rucker Farm in Alpharetta this past week. The farm is where the city is beginning to implement their plan to diversify their food sources due to supply chain issues in grocery stores. For residents, it’s a beacon of hope.
Old Rucker Farm is a place where high school students like Sydney Rooks and military veteran James Graeme can spend time planting vegetables, picking carrots or rolling up hay. They both told Holloway that putting in the work now is important because growing their produce locally matters, especially with the supply chain problems grocery stores are experiencing.
“So the blueberries you put in your oatmeal or the eggs in your cake those come from farmers,” Graeme said. “The cotton that’s in the clothes you wear that comes from farming as well. So whether people notice it or not, they are relying on agriculture every single day and that’s why it’s so important.”
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Holloway spoke with Amanda Musilli, who works for the City of Alpharetta. Musilli said that come springtime, the city will make a decision about how to use the money after gathering input from the community.
“Over the next couple of months, we will be hosting a steering committee and have focus groups,” Musilli said. “With those focus groups, we’ll assess what we need as a city, what the community wants.”
Once the community engagement part of the plan is implemented, the city plans to share times, dates and locations on the website and social media pages.
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