News Release Archives - Carolina Farm Trust

28 Feb, 2022

Carolina Farm Trust Facility Aims to Fill Void in West Charlotte

By Nikki|2022-03-22T19:38:16+00:00February 28, 2022|Comments Off on Carolina Farm Trust Facility Aims to Fill Void in West Charlotte

Distribution center will include butchery, grocery store, teaching kitchen and event space

Nikolai Mather

Carolina Farm Trust CEO Zack Wyatt kicks our interview off with a simple phrase: “Every major geopolitical issue we have is coming from the dirt, in one fashion or another.”

In some ways, one could argue that his nonprofit’s latest project, a local food production and distribution center in west Charlotte’s Thomasboro-Hoskins neighborhood, worked in reverse. After all, it was due to COVID (a geopolitical issue) that city leaders were able to see the need for this project, allowing Carolina Farm Trust to secure the funding needed for the warehouse, located on what is currently just an abandoned lot (the dirt).

Wyatt says a global pandemic is, for many, what it took

17 Feb, 2022

Planned grocery store hopes to solve west Charlotte’s ‘food desert’

By Nikki|2022-03-22T19:32:20+00:00February 17, 2022|Comments Off on Planned grocery store hopes to solve west Charlotte’s ‘food desert’

February 17, 2022 at 5:56 pm EST

By Anthony Kustura, wsoctv.com

CHARLOTTE — An old egg production plant will soon be transformed into a grocery store and food distribution center in a west Charlotte neighborhood now considered a food desert.

Carolina Farm Trust, a nonprofit aimed at tackling food insecurity, has secured a 25,000-square-foot space in the 500 block of South Hoskins Road near Brookshire Boulevard as the site for its retail endeavor.

The neighborhood where the store will reside in west Charlotte is known to have a shortage of sources for fresh food — there are no official grocery stores within a mile radius of the area.

“There’s never been a grocery store over here,” said Jean

14 Feb, 2022

A west Charlotte food distribution center is set to receive $1.5M in city funding

By Nikki|2022-03-22T19:33:05+00:00February 14, 2022|Comments Off on A west Charlotte food distribution center is set to receive $1.5M in city funding

facility mock up WFAE | By Nick de la Canal
Published February 14, 2022 at 5:46 AM EST

What’s now a vacant warehouse off Interstate 85 near Brookshire Boulevard in Charlotte could soon become a bustling food market and distribution center with a rooftop garden, test kitchen, meat processing facility and a grocery store.

The nonprofit Carolina Farm Trust is developing plans for the facility at 511 South Hoskins Road. The site includes 25,000 square feet of existing building space and 60,000 square feet of green space.

The nonprofit already partners with many local farmers, helping them with land, equipment and other farming essentials. The group also purchases many locally produced foods to distribute to people in need, as well as local nonprofits, food trucks and restaurants operating in underserved areas of Mecklenburg County.

Carolina Farm Trust’s president and CEO, Zack Wyatt, said the new center

9 Feb, 2022

Food distribution center being built in west Charlotte food desert

By Nikki|2022-03-22T19:29:42+00:00February 9, 2022|Comments Off on Food distribution center being built in west Charlotte food desert

CLICK TO WATCH STORY

7 Jan, 2020

Eric Davis, North Carolina State Board of Education, Chair

By CarolinaFarmTrust|2020-01-22T00:28:15+00:00January 7, 2020|Comments Off on Eric Davis, North Carolina State Board of Education, Chair

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Carolina Business Review

Catch our executive director, Zack Wyatt, on a recent episode of Carolina Business Review.

Zack Wyatt, Carolina Farm Trust

Guests from recent dialogues include (top left) Peter Gwaltney – NC Bankers, Linda Brown – Asheboro Chamber, Larry Appel – Fresh Market CEO, Zack Wyatt – Carolina Farm Trust, Joe Waters – Capita, Eric Davis – NC Board of Ed. Chair, Bernie Mazyck – SC Asso. of Community Dev., Catherine Truitt – Western Governors Univ., Brian Etheridge – Leadership NC and Chris William.

12 Dec, 2019

Carolina Farm Trust Secures Seed Funding for The Urban Farm at Aldersgate

By CarolinaFarmTrust|2022-03-09T17:08:14+00:00December 12, 2019|Comments Off on Carolina Farm Trust Secures Seed Funding for The Urban Farm at Aldersgate

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]CHARLOTTE, NC, December 12, 2019: Carolina Farm Trust (CFT), a Charlotte based non-profit focused on rebuilding the regional food system from production to consumption, has received seed funding from Foundation For The Carolinas, Carver Pressley, Realtors, and other Corporate Donors for The Urban Farm at Aldersgate, located in east Charlotte.

Leased from the Aldersgate Retirement Community in April of 2018, the site will cultivate a variety of crops that meet the needs of the immediate community. Local residents will contribute, through feedback sessions with the farm, to diversified and sustainably grown produce, beginning in the spring of 2020.

“We feel the Carolina Farm Trust is an organization on the forefront of addressing food security, food access and eliminating the “class-system” of food in the Charlotte area. We are thrilled The Urban Farm at Aldersgate is coming to life,” said Suzanne Pugh, CEO of the Aldersgate Retirement Community.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”12px”][vc_single_image image=”4339″ img_size=”full” onclick=”link_image”

16 Sep, 2019

This community farm plans food, flowers and compost and it wants your waste

By CarolinaFarmTrust|2024-08-13T10:55:59+00:00September 16, 2019|Comments Off on This community farm plans food, flowers and compost and it wants your waste

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Full Article Source Here at Charlotte Five By Temily Wardlaw

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]Imagine a city with zero food waste. A city in which leftover food is turned into compost and is then continually used as soil to produce new crops.

This concept is called a “circular economy,” and the local nonprofit Carolina Farm Trust has recently acquired an 11-acre farm in Union County to begin what will be a 10 year journey of changing the way the community interacts with the lifecycle of food.

Set to open in the spring of 2020, the farmland has been subleased to three independent organizations: Nebedaye Farms, Serendipity Flowers and Crown Town Compost.

Read more here: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/charlottefive/c5-around-town/article236109863.html#storylink=cpy

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Courtesy of Crown Town Compost

[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”12px”][vc_column_text]“We are creating this farm to strengthen our community — to create a cycle in which people in our area can both give to

29 Jun, 2018

Triangle Business Journal

By CarolinaFarmTrust|2019-12-12T18:33:11+00:00June 29, 2018|Comments Off on Triangle Business Journal

20 Jun, 2018

Charlotte Talks: Bringing Relief To Our Food Deserts

By CarolinaFarmTrust|2024-10-17T12:00:17+00:00June 20, 2018|Comments Off on Charlotte Talks: Bringing Relief To Our Food Deserts

WFAE 90.7 Charlotte’s NPR News Source –

“On the next Charlotte Talks, a look into food insecurity. The queen city is populated with areas known as food deserts, areas in which it is difficult or impossible to buy affordable fresh food. We sit down with a panel of guests to discuss what can be done about this.

As of 2015 nearly 90,000 of Charlotte’s residents don’t have access to healthy foods. Charlotte’s poorer areas are particularly hard hit by this.

This lack of food security for many of Charlotte’s residents highlights the uneven economic growth in a city that is already ranked among the worst in America for providing opportunities for its residents to lift themselves out of poverty.

GUESTS:

Zack Wyatt, director, Carolina Farm Trust

Philip Otienburu, director, Center for Renewable Energy & Sustainability, Johnson C. Smith University

Dimple Ajmera, Council Member, City of Charlotte”

Click Here To Listen

3 May, 2018

New Urban Farm Targets ‘Food Desert’ In Charlotte’s East Side

By CarolinaFarmTrust|2019-12-12T18:32:35+00:00May 3, 2018|Comments Off on New Urban Farm Targets ‘Food Desert’ In Charlotte’s East Side

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This rendering shows the proposed Urban Farm at Aldersgate in east Charlotte.

This urban farm concept will expand access to healthy food options in Charlotte’s east side.

Aldersgate and Carolina Farm Trust have teamed up on that initiative, called Urban Farm at Aldersgate. Plans call for that 6.7-acre working farm to serve as a food source — and learning center — for the community.

“Part of our mission at Aldersgate is taking care of our neighbors,” says Erin Barbee, Aldersgate’s director of mission advancement. “Access to fresh, healthy food should be a given for everyone in our community.”

Aldersgate operates a 231-acre continuing care

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