When the pandemic shuttered restaurants and overwhelmed food banks, a group of college students saw an impossible paradox: fields of food rotting while families went hungry. The Farmlink Project bridged that gap, and the J.W. Couch Foundation helped tell their story to the world.
In the spring of 2020, as the world ground to a halt, a strange and heartbreaking paradox unfolded across America. In one field, a farmer watched truckloads of ripe onions soften into the soil. In another, perfectly good potatoes were plowed back into the earth. Meanwhile, just miles away, food bank lines stretched for hours, and families waited in cars to receive a single box of groceries.
A group of college students, sent home from campuses across the country, refused to accept that contradiction. They picked up their phones, started cold-calling farms, and got to work.
A Grassroots Movement Born in Crisis
The Farmlink Project began with a simple idea and a powerful question: What if we could connect the food that's being wasted to the people who need it most? Founded in 2020 by a coalition of students determined to act, Farmlink built a logistics network from the ground up, coordinating trucks, drivers, farmers, and food banks to move surplus produce from fields to families.
What started as a scrappy operation run from dorm rooms and family kitchens quickly became one of the most remarkable nonprofit success stories of the pandemic era. In just two years, Farmlink moved over 50 million pounds of food and delivered more than 40 million meals to communities across the country.
Why Storytelling Mattered
By the time the J.W. Couch Foundation connected with Farmlink, the organization had already proven its model worked. What it needed next was a way to scale — to bring on more donors, recruit more volunteers, and attract the corporate partners who could help sustain its rapid growth. To do that, Farmlink needed to tell its story powerfully, and to multiple audiences at once: college students looking for a way to help, farmers with crops to spare, and major funders ready to invest in change.
Through its COVID-19 Relief grant, the J.W. Couch Foundation partnered with Tectonic Video — a studio trusted by some of the most respected nonprofits in the country, with nearly 200 awards and recognition from The New York Times — to produce a flagship suite of videos tailored to each of Farmlink's key audiences.
On-the-Ground Impact
The results spoke for themselves. The videos generated over half a million views, drove a surge of new traffic to Farmlink's platforms, and became cornerstone assets in the organization's fundraising and recruitment efforts. More importantly, they translated complex logistics into something deeply human: the face of a farmer, the hands of a volunteer, the relief of a family receiving fresh produce when they needed it most.
Working with the JWC Foundation and Tectonic was an absolute privilege. Together, we created a flagship series of videos that have become our most impactful and successful assets to date. We are incredibly fortunate to be involved with these partners and the alternative ways they provide to help us fight against food insecurity and waste.Aidan Reilly, Co-Founder and Head of Partnerships, The Farmlink Project
What Makes Farmlink Different
Farmlink's strength lies in what makes it unlike any other hunger relief organization: a generation of young leaders who refused to wait for permission to solve a problem. They built relationships directly with farmers, leveraged technology to coordinate logistics at scale, and treated food recovery not as charity but as an urgent climate and equity issue. Every pound of produce rescued is a pound that doesn't rot in a landfill releasing methane, and a meal that reaches a family who would have otherwise gone without.
Looking Forward
The pandemic may have sparked Farmlink's founding, but its mission extends far beyond crisis response. Food waste and food insecurity remain two of the most solvable — and most overlooked — problems of our time. With every truck dispatched and every story told, The Farmlink Project is proving that a generation of young leaders can transform an entire system. The J.W. Couch Foundation is proud to have helped amplify their voice at a pivotal moment — and even prouder to watch what they build next.
