Connecting Farmers and Food (Even If They Have to Drive the Trucks Themselves)

After reading about how supply chains were disrupted by the pandemic, and how American farmers were suddenly left with food they couldn’t sell, Will Collier ‘20 (Architecture and Economics concentrator) and Aidan Reilly ‘21 (Political Science and Government concentrator) had an idea: maybe they could raise money to buy the food, and deliver it themselves to people that needed it.

So in the midst of the pandemic they founded Farmlink, which to date has delivered over 10 million pounds of unsold produce to food banks across Southern California. And while their idea was born out of this current crisis, it has grown into something far bigger than emergency relief.

This episode is the third in our series on how Brown students are navigating the pandemic. Will and Aidan discuss how they came up with the idea for Farmlink, the underlying issues in our food system that have made Farmlink so impactful, and what it’s like learning to drive a semi-trailer.

You can learn more about Farmlink here.

You can learn more about Watson’s other podcasts here.

Photo credit: Owen Dubeck