Popular apparel brand for farmers, Carhartt is not just providing families a way to stay warm this holiday season — the iconic jacket maker is also helping families have a warm meal with a $1 million charitable contribution split between non-profits The Farmlink Project and Feeding America.
Carhartt’s donation is in honor of Giving Tuesday, a day that encourage charitable donations, which takes place on December 1 this year. Half of the donation will fund The Farmlink Project’s work of connecting farmers’ surpluses of unused food to food banks. Additionally, Carhartt will work with Farmlink to distribute food to Detroit area residents ahead of Thanksgiving.
The other half of the $1 million donation will go to Feeding America, which will provide 5 million meals across its food bank network, Carhartt shared in a press release.
“At Carhartt, our mission has always been to build durable products that serve and protect all hardworking people, but our commitment to them goes well beyond the gear we make. The farmers who grow our food and the people who work every day to provide for their families deserve our support. By partnering with The Farmlink Project and Feeding America, we’re helping make sure more of the food grown through hard work reaches the families who need it,” said Todd Corley, Carhartt’s chief people and impact officer, in a press release.
How Farmlink is helping farmers dispose of food waste
Carhartt’s million-dollar contribution comes as nearly one in seven households face food insecurity, while nearly 60 million tons of food, or 30-40% of the total food supply, is wasted a year.
Farmlink uses social media, market insights, and other information to find food that would normally be discarded, whether it’s Washington apple or potatoes following a market crash, co-founder of the non-profit Aidan Reilly told AgNavigator. Then, the organization picks up the food from the farmer, manages the logistics, and connects them to food banks.
“We’re working around the clock, on the farmer’s schedule, to make sure that no food goes to waste because there was nobody there to do the logistics,” Reilly elaborated.
By preventing the food going to waste, Farmlink also helps farmers manage the expense of disposal, which can be costly, Reilly noted.
“We’ve seen agriculture companies having to spend as much as $3,000 a truckload to dump [surplus food], especially if you’re in a place like California where there’s environmental regulation. It costs a ton of money to dump that food. You’re going to have to pay for labor to tear it out of the packaging. We’re just saying don’t do any of that - just give it to us. We’re going to cover the cost of transportation, … and then they get a tax write-off for a portion of the value of that food,” he added.
SNAP cuts put strain on food safety net
Food banks and pantries are facing increased strain due to changes to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits under the Trump administration and in specific states.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act changed work requirements for SNAP benefits, requiring adults between the ages of 16 and 59 to work or volunteer at least 80 hours a month. Various state governments also made additional restrictions on what SNAP recipients can purchase with their benefits, often excluding sodas and candy.
While hopeful on a change in SNAP policy, Farmlink is leaning into innovation, including exploring technology to forecast food disruptions, to fill the gap in the meantime, he added.
“SNAP provides more food to people in the United States than the rest of the entire charitable food system combined. So, we’ve had to step up in a really significant way and lean on partners and donors like Carhartt to try to fill that gap. We had communities who never reached out to us in the past — they were always well resourced. They were never at critical levels of food insecurity — who are now fully dependent on the donations from organizations like FarmLink,” he elaborated.