By Laura Lauffer
Guest Writer
NC State Extension today announced that it has expanded the Vacationer Supported Agriculture (VSA) initiative in 2021 to include a pilot in Haywood County. The concept for VSA was developed by a team of specialists from NC State Extension and Tourism Extension as part of a 3-year USDA Farmers Market Promotion Program grant. For the past four years VSA has coordinated the sale of weekly produce bags to vacationers over the summer tourism season, as illustrated in this short youtube animation, NC State’s project team and county Extension partners coordinate groups of local farmers in the growing, packaging, and delivery of bags of local produce to pick-up locations convenient to vacationers. This coordination is introduced to vacationers through local realty companies.
The VSA project was piloted in Ocean Isle Beach in 2018 and was expanded in 2019 and 2020 to other Brunswick County beaches (Sunset Beach, Holden Beach, Oak Island, and Bald Head Island), as well as Wrightsville Beach and Surf City. The program experienced exponential growth as a result of the 2019 expansion and had strong sales in 2020 despite the pandemic. In 2021, the VSA program expanded to include additional NC beaches.
In October for the Fall Leaf Season, the VSA program will expand to connect visitors to the Smoky Mountains with fresh local food. NCSU Extension Project, EmPOWERing Mountain Food Systems is collaborating with the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority and the Haywood County Cooperative Extension office to launch the project. Visitors to the Maggie Valley and Waynesville area can pick their bags up Elevated Distillery and Bosu Wine Shopon Thursday from 12 to 6. Local Real Estate Agencies are directing clients to the following order links to enjoy a fresh bag of local produce and farm-fresh on their arrival to the region.
Mighty Gnome Market Garden, Bertolli Agricola and Outlaw Acres farms are providing the produce to clients of Mounty Maggie Rentals, https://www.p1provisions.com/realty-hay-maggie-mountain-vacations/, Smoky Mountain Retreats https://www.p1provisions.com/realty-hay-nc-smokies/, and Magnolia Concierge www.p1provisions.com/realty-hay-magnolia-concierge/
To cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, all produce aggregators use appropriate safeguards and follow standard food safety protocols to prevent the spread of the virus.
The NC Tobacco Trust Fund Commission supports the VSA program through grant funding for the aggregators serving each VSA market.
VSA has been both regionally and nationally recognized as an innovative approach to direct-to-consumer farm sales. For more information, contact Becky Bowen at blbowen@ncsu.edu or 919-628-4317 or Laura Lauffer lwlauffe@ncsu.edu, 828 359 6926. For more information on Vacationer Supported Agriculture, go to: https://p1provisions.com/.