March 11, 2021
Flint River Fresh Grows Good Food Throughout The Good Life City
Albany, GA - Flint River Fresh is growing good food throughout the Good Life City through fruitful partnerships. Wednesday, March 31st is Planting Day with Flint River Fresh in Dougherty County. The day of community volunteer gardening activities begins at J. C. Odom, Jr. Fitness and Wellness Center at 10:30 am. The afternoon activities will start at 2:00 pm at The Arc of Southwest Georgia. Planting days with Flint River Fresh are opportunities for the community to help make every household food secure and gain do-it-yourself gardening skills.
Learn more about Planting Day with Flint River Fresh and how to sign-up to volunteer in the press release.
January 12, 2021
Flint River Fresh Prepares School Garden Sites for Spring Planting
From September - December of 2020, Flint River Fresh’s Executive Director, Fredando Jackson, and School Garden Coordinator, Jordan Parker, teamed up with Dougherty County School System’s Nutrition department’s Partners of Excellence to renovate existing and build new raised garden beds at the three pilot elementary schools. Currently, Radium Springs has 12 raised beds that have been prepped and planted to support Albany’s Feeding the Valley. Robert H. Harvey now has 4 additional new double stacked raised garden beds, totaling the school garden to 10 raised beds, and Turner Elementary has 10 newly renovated double stacked beds. Cold crop planting, including lettuce, broccoli, kale, and collards, will take place at the schools towards the end of January, leading into Spring planting in February and March.
Read more in the press release.
March 1, 2021
Flint River Fresh Leads Community Engagement for Dougherty Fresh
Albany— 3/01/2021 — Today at the Dougherty County Commission Meeting, Flint River Fresh joined Dougherty County leadership to spotlight the Dougherty Fresh initiative launched in November 2020 with funding through the Healthiest Cities and Counties Challenge.
Program highlights shared at the March 1 meeting include a new collaboration with Veggie & Soul, a twelve-week nutrition and health intervention program directed by local doctors.
Fredando Jackson, Flint River Fresh Executive Director, "Our main goal is to bring fresh, affordable food choices to communities that don't have regular access. We are looking to connect with organizations that are already doing the work, especially on the South and East side of Albany."
Read more in the press release.
5th grade students at Turner Elementary planting broccoli and brussels sprout plants in their newly renovated raised garden beds.
Magnolia Pre-K school students participate in an interactive lesson at one of school garden sites during the 2018/2019 academic year.
AUGUST 30, 2020
Flint River Fresh Grows Partnership With The Dougherty County Schools System through USDA-FNS Grant
ALBANY, GA – Flint River Fresh was among the esteemed 2020 United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) Farm to School Grant awardees. The planning grant, entitled “From School Garden to Cafeteria.”
“The Garden-to-Cafeteria Program gives students real-world experience in feeding their community by growing fruits and vegetables that will be served in their school cafeteria,” says Fredando Jackson, Executive Director of Flint River Fresh.
Read more in the Press Release
July 24, 2020
Dougherty County, Flint River Fresh, and UGA Extension Service awarded $100,000 Aetna Foundation grant to advance health equity in Dougherty County
DOUGHERTY COUNTY, GA – Dougherty County has announced its selection to receive a grant as part of the Healthiest Cities & Counties Challenge, a program funded by the Aetna Foundation, together with the American Public Health Association (APHA) and the National Association of Counties (NACo), supporting communities that are changing the way they work together across sectors to reduce disparities in chronic disease outcomes.
“The end goal is to go into areas that are food deserts with limited access to healthy food choices and help establish more community garden spaces and develop local community champions by providing tools and resources they need to make an impact where they live,” said Fredando (“Farmer Fredo”) Jackson, Executive Director of Flint River Fresh. “We are working with local government to create policies and economic opportunities to bring fresh food into our local communities.”
Read more in the Press Release
April 15, 2020
Flint River Fresh Extends Produce Box Program in Response to COVID-19 Pandemic
Albany, Georgia — Flint River Fresh has announced a minimum two week extension to the Produce Box Pilot Program launched April 4th in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The initial 14-day long pilot program was extended after positive feedback and additional support from local businesses.
“The gesture of providing a hot meal and fresh produce to those who have been impacted, isolated from family, have experienced lost wages, and who have been on the front lines of this response has meant more than we could’ve anticipated.” - Fredando Jackson, Executive Director of Flint River Fresh.
May 22, 2020
Flint River Fresh Produce Box Program in Response to COVID-19 Pandemic Continues with Community Support
Albany, Georgia — The Produce Box Program launched by Flint River Fresh on April 4th in response to the COVID-19 pandemic is continuing its community impact. Success has propelled the initial 14-day long pilot program into its seventh week of operation. To date, more than 700 fresh produce boxes and 430 locally sourced hot meals have been delivered in Dougherty and Lee County.
“On behalf of Los Vaqueros, we want to thank you for supporting hospital staff,” says Supreeya Lopez, an owner of El Vaquero Mexican Restaurant and Los Vasqueros in Albany, who selected Phoebe ICU nurse staff as recipients of the program. “Thank you so much for supporting local restaurants”
Read more in the Press Release
April 4, 2020
Flint River Fresh Launches Pilot Produce Box Program in Response to COVID-19 Pandemic
Albany, Georgia — Flint River Fresh is working alongside private, small businesses in Albany to serve residents impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic through the launch of a pilot Produce Box Program . Flint River Fresh, with generous support from an anonymous locally owned business, has committed to covering the costs to serve a hot meal to community members in need, and provide each with a produce box to take home.
“Now more than ever we see a need in our community for access to healthy, fresh produce,” says Fredando Jackson, Executive Director of Flint River Fresh. “While we’ve shifted our primary activities away from direct community engagement events and volunteer work, Flint River Fresh will continue growing and distributing food to those in need in our community.”
December 5, 2019
Phoebe, Flint River Fresh partner to open new community garden
Albany, GA (WALB) – Phoebe and Flint River Fresh partnered up to provide fresh, locally grown produce, to people in Albany.
Phoebe donated a total of three-quarters acres of land in Dougherty County.
Click here to watch the news clip
Click to read coverage in our local newspaper
october 23, 2019
Flint River Fresh partners with expo to showcase sustainable gardens
This year, a familiar face in Southwest Georgia, Fredando "Farmer Fredo" Jackson partnered with the 42nd Sunbelt Ag Expo, in Moultrie, to show people what Flint River Fresh has been working on.
This year, Flint River Fresh teamed up with the expo to teach local students, as well as small-scale farmers how to grow food in their backyard and helped with educating people on how to convert abandoned lots into a food oasis for the community.
Fredo says that this particular garden has been in existence for more than seven weeks and has a plethora of crops. This garden will also serve as a pollinator garden, a community composite site as well as an irrigation site.
october 20, 2019
Hands-on approach to nutrition education flourishes
ALBANY — The Georgia Department of Education recognized Flint River Fresh Executive Director Fredando Jackson, better known as “Farmer Fredo,” as Farmer of the Year at the Golden Radish Award ceremony last month after Jackson was nominated by the Dougherty County School System’s nutrition program.
The award is a reflection of the work done over the last several years to add a new perspective to nutritional education.
Blaine Allen, school nutrition director for the Dougherty County School System, said there are teaching gardens at all of the system’s elementary schools — including at the Magnolia Pre-K facility.
october 15, 2019
Farmer Fredo plants a seed in southwest Georgia
MOULTRIE — Albany’s Fredando Jackson is taking his messages of healthy eating and educating people on how to grow nutritious foods at home to a bigger audience, with an exhibit and year-around garden plot at the Sunbelt Agricultural Exposition.
Jackson, known affectionately as “Farmer Fredo,” was honored on Tuesday with a ribbon-cutting at his 1-acre garden plot during the first day of the three-day farm show in Moultrie.
“We’re in a partnership with Sunbelt Expo to continue the (show’s) Sustainable Living Center,” Jackson told The Herald during an interview following the ribbon-cutting that included Gov. Brian Kemp and Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black.
SEPTEMBER 20, 2019
Teaching gardens serving students and the community
Fifteen schools in our local area house the site of a community garden.
These teaching gardens can be found in various school campuses in Dougherty County, from Pre-K to high school.
FOX 31 News spoke with Dougherty County School Nutrition Director Blaine Allen who says that these teaching gardens not only feed our local community, but they also provide an in-depth educational experience for the students.
"When you think about our teaching gardens, there's a curriculum - there's STEM, there's math, there's science, and there's technology involved."
september 7, 2019
Flint River Fresh influence continues to grow
ALBANY — Fredando “Farmer Fredo” Jackson, executive director of Flint River Fresh, has been working to help increase access to fresh and affordable food while creating economic opportunities for southwest Georgia farmers.
These and other efforts were discussed in a report Jackson gave to the Dougherty County Commission this week.
Jackson said one way he’s achieved his goals is through community gardens, which have been created to serve as an educational tool teaching residents how to grow their own food while serving as an outdoor classroom for students. The gardens transform vacant and abandoned lots into plots where food is grown.
SEPTEMBER 7, 2019
Teach a student to farm, and he can feed himself -- and his family -- for a lifetime
ALBANY, GA (Albany Herald) - Dougherty County ninth-graders visited a farm and returned to the Commodore Conyers College and Career Academy with the desire to launch their own agricultural venture.
On Saturday they got their hands dirty filling plant beds they’d built with soil and compost and planting seeds.
“The objective is to learn about science and technology and even energy and math while growing (food) that can be given back to our community,” Chris Hatcher, the CEO of the college and career academy, said.
December 20, 2018
Mobile market helps elderly, low-income families in Albany
ALBANY, GA (WALB) - People in one West Albany neighborhood said they are struggling to receive fresh food, but thanks to a mobile fresh market, farm fresh produce is available right outside their doorsteps.
Flint River Fresh partnered with the Albany Housing Authority to give a solution to food deserts in the area.
On Thursday, the mobile farmers market was in West Albany where there is limited access to fresh food.
December 20, 2018
Flint River Fresh providing mobile farmer's markets across community
Albany, GA (WFXL) - On Thursday, Flint River Fresh hosted a mobile farmer's market for people who live near Holman Homes on West Gordon Avenue.
Executive Director Fredando Jackson says this is the fifth neighborhood he's been to this week, providing fresh produce for people in the community.
Jackson says his goal is to focus on areas that have a high population of seniors and people with disabilities so that everyone, no matter how far away they are from a grocery store, has fresh produce they can take advantage of.
December 20, 2018
Flint River Fresh brings produce to Albany food desert neighborhood
Albany, GA (Albany Herald) - For Fredando Jackson, also known as “Farmer Fredo,” getting fresh produce to Albany’s food deserts is a task that comes one sweet potato at a time.
Jackson, the executive director of Flint River Fresh, has partnered with the Albany Housing Authority to bring mobile farmers’ markets to these food deserts as a way to provide accessible produce and promote healthy eating.
He targeted on Thursday the W.C. Holman Homes neighborhood, which was impacted by the closing of the Harveys Supermarket on West Gordon Avenue after Hurricane Michael — a closure that took away access to fresh produce from a community.
December 16, 2018
Flint River Fresh mission needs community buy-in
Albany, GA (Albany Herald) - Fredando Jackson recognizes that the Albany area has a need for increased access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Some neighborhoods do not have grocery stores available within a 5-mile radius, resulting in “food deserts” in those areas.
Health problems associated with poor nutrition are also often connected to limited healthy food access. Enter Flint River Fresh.
From its master gardener classes to school gardens to community events, the organization is looking to increase its influence in the community.
“It is for our farmers, for our future and for our community,” Jackson said.
December 3, 2018
Flint River Fresh educating, growing farm fresh produce
Albany, GA (WFXL) - A local non-profit, Flint River Fresh, is trying to help people who may not have access to healthy foods.
Executive Director of Flint River Fresh Fredando Jackson spoke to Dougherty County commissioners on Monday about his future plans and current successes.
He says his goal is to promote healthy eating and eating locally grown food.