Given:
- Rural Georgia farmers play a major role in growing produce, berries and meats for its population
- Rural Georgia Hospitals provide a substantial amount of health care through its rural hospitals
- Rural Hospitals need tax subsidy periodically from the county tax base
- The county tax base is made up of taxes paid by large landowners who often are farmers, large and small
- Farmers and their employees need rural health care from local hospitals
- The food supply chain has suffered a heavy loss of the pandemic due to shortages occurring within the supply chain between grower and table ready user
- Rural Hospitals represent a major consumer of food supplies in their kitchens within the supply chain among which are the produce, vegetables, berries, and protein sources as in beef and pork meats.
- Agricultural Commissioner Gary Black has been and is a major player in supporting this organizational effort
The Vision
- For as much as at least 60 Georgia rural hospitals and at least 20 rural hospitals have hospital-based nursing homes, those numbers represent a major consumption of “Georgia Grown” Foodstuffs that currently may be purchase by non-Georgia grown brokers.
- Rural hospitals and nursing homes can coalesce to help farmers by establishing a buying point for rural hospitals to purchase these supply chain food stuffs from local Georgia Farmers
- The coalescing of small supporting farmers and rural hospitals will occur in the development of a Farmer Rural Hospital/ Small Farmer type coop where development works have already begun led by Michele Madison of Morris Manning Martin.
- Move to provide local “Georgia Farm Grown” goods to rural hospital kitchens and dining rooms for patients, staff, and community as rapidly as possible relative to the harvest schedule