“That’s My Farmer!”
A Handbook on Starting a Grassroots Farmers’ Market Coupon Program
Fall 2007

A Brief History
Nearly a decade ago, The Reverend John Pitney and his congregation, First United Methodist Church (FUMC), began celebrating local, family-scale farming in Eugene, Oregon, emerging out of one of Interfaith Network for Earth Concerns, “A Place at the Table” conferences. FUMC called its efforts “That’s My Farmer” after a folk song John wrote about Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). Here’s the refrain:

Oh, that’s my farmer!
Don’t I have good taste?
We’re taking back our food system!
It needs a human face.
I just can’t wait till Tuesday
To see what’s in our box.
Community Supported Agriculture really rocks!

Harvest bad? Harvest brisk?
We share the bounty, share the risk.
Cheap food gone berserk,
We pay directly, to those who do the work!

Over time, more than fifteen Eugene faith communities joined the cause. Families gathered each spring to meet local farmers, sing John’s songs about the virtues of local food, and subscribe to the area’s thirteen CSA farms. (Community Supported Agriculture farms are subscription farms, for which customers pay a one-time share fee at the start of the season and receive a share of produce from the farm each week.) They distributed an annual publication called “Action Guide for Faith Communities” and sold coupons to households that preferred not to join a CSA. Extra donations funded CSA shares for low-income households each season.

Fifty miles north of Eugene in the smaller city of Corvallis, members of St. Mary’s Catholic Church were inspired and began promoting Benton County’s two CSA farms within their congregation in 2004. Prompted by feedback that CSA shares were overwhelming to many people and sometimes culturally inappropriate, organizers shifted their approach and sold coupons that could be redeemed at the farmer’s market in 2005.

That year, the “That’s My Farmer” effort in Corvallis became the focus of a USDA Community Food Projects Grant secured by Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon. With the support of a project coordinator and volunteers, St. Mary’s and EMO expanded the fledgling coupon program to other faith communities and farms in 2006, keeping a critical eye on successes and challenges of the project in hopes of sharing their experiences with other communities throughout the region and beyond.