WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Farm owners have created Farmer’s Friend boxes for their communities after restaurant shutdowns negatively affected their businesses.

What You Need To Know


  • The Farmer's Friend boxes help multiple farms sell produce

  • Restaurant closures impacted local farms who rely on wholesale to restaurants

  • The proceeds help community organizations

When restaurants closed due to coronavirus shutdowns, farms like Heritage Harvest Farms lost about 60 to 70 percent of their business.

Owners of the farm, Drew and Claire Parrish, partnered with other farms to help solve the problem of excess food at their farms and loss of income while restaurants were closed.

The boxes help them push local produce. They ask people to spend 10 percent of their food budgets on local produce, which helps the job market and boosts local economies.

Each box has produce from different farms and can be ordered online. 

"It gives everybody a way to shine. Some people are really great at growing greens, or produce, or berries," Claire said.

A portion of the proceeds from Farmer's Friend boxes also goes toward social programs that fight injustices such as racial injustices or poverty.

More information about the boxes can be found here.