Our Mission

Granite State Food & Leadership Alliance connects the farms that grow food with the restaurants, schools, and institutions that buy it, and moves what's grown to the communities where fresh food is hardest to reach. In southern New Hampshire, that gap is wide. In Rockingham County, 43% of residents live far from a supermarket — the highest share in the state — in a place where the poverty rate is only 4.8%. The barrier isn't money. It's distance. And distance, in a rural state built around the car, is a wall for anyone who can't drive: the nearly one in four New Hampshire residents who are 65 or older, and everyone the bus doesn't reach.

We work on two things at once.

First, the pathways. We build the standing orders that connect local farms to local buyers, so small farms get steadier markets and communities get fresher food. A truck, a buyer, and a recurring order do more than a study.

Second, the people. Pathways don't run themselves. We grow the local leaders, farms, and food businesses that keep food moving after the grant ends: a leadership cohort that trains residents as food-system navigators, and direct support for the small farms and food businesses that are the most fragile link in the chain.

We do all of it in the open. Most nonprofits report their finances once a year, in a document almost no one reads. We publish ours live. Every dollar in, every dollar out, itemized on a public ledger, posted within seven days, with the overhead rate shown, not hidden. A neighbor, a donor, a skeptic, a reporter: anyone can see where the money goes, anytime, without asking.

This is a food-systems problem, not a political one. A broken supply chain doesn't care how a town votes, and neither do we. We start in southern New Hampshire because that's where we are, and we build every piece to be copied, so the model works anywhere the food is close and the access isn't.

The farm is fifteen minutes away. Our job is to close the distance.