NC H879

Appropriates $10,000,000 in nonrecurring General Fund dollars for fiscal year 2023-2024 to Carolina Farm Trust, a nonprofit organization, to rebuild a decentralized food system focused on health, nutrition, and sustainability.

Farm Apprentice Program will establish career paths in regional agriculture, broaden the agricultural labor force through academic and practical training, deploy traveling teams for rural farmer infrastructure support, and provide emergency assistance to rural farmers.

Food as Health Program will address chronic health issues through trained community health workers, create affordable and accessible produce for consumers, and establish a database to collect volunteer health information to address participant needs.

Agriculture Distribution Platform will develop affordable community access points for regional food economy resilience, construct a 3,000 square foot regional kitchen with learning kitchen and event space, and increase regional meat processing facilities to support farm-to-institution sales by small farmers.

The act becomes effective July 1, 2023.