Kelli Kelly, the executive director of the Fallon Food Hub, is passionate about her role in making people healthy and aware of the produce Churchill County offers to this part of Nevada. When she speaks at organizations about the Fallon Food Hub, Kelly climbs on her soapbox regularly to tell how people can help Churchill County’s food producers.
“We have people waving the flag about our agricultural heritage,” she said.
Whether Kelly speaks before the Chamber of Commerce, a Churchill Economic Development Authority breakfast or a service organization such as Fallon Rotary Club, she enlightens her audiences with a wealth of knowledge about eating health. When she and her husband, Neil, moved to the area in 2009, Kelly will be the first to admit, she didn’t know much about Churchill County and what it had to offer. Once she experienced the agricultural offerings produced in the county, Kelly vowed not to buy produce again at a grocery store.
“We have so many amazing ag producers in our community,” she said.
Kelly worked at the Slanted Porch restaurant with Steve Hernandez who, Kelly said, supported local agriculture as much as possible. She also started her own catering business and a big break in her career occurred.
“Rachel Dahl (former executive director of CEDA) enlisted me to work with the board president and directors of the Fallon Food Hub in September 2016,” Kelly said.
From there, the Fallon Food Hub absorbed a program that handed out food boxes to local subscribers, and in the first year, Kelly said the food hub made about $250.
“This program is a lot of work, but we don’t make a lot of money with it but it’s our best avenue for accomplishing our mission,” she said.
In 2018, Kelly said she looked at ways to change the program. Subscribers could go to a virtual store and choose what they wanted to purchase for their boxes.
As the program grew, the coronavirus pandemic hit, but according to Kelly, the Fallon Food Hub ended 2020 on a positive note. From November 2019 to December 2020, she said the Fallon Food Hub experienced a busy time.
“We’re one of few entities that came out of the pandemic,” she pointed out. “We did more business than we ever did before.”
The Fallon Food Hub delivered 3,100 boxes, which amounted to $116,000 in local produce. She added 419 popup boxes were delivered to one-time customers. Any excess food was delivered to nonprofit organizations such as 700 pound of beef, which was given to the Out of Egypt food pantry in Fallon.
With the food hub staff recuperated from a long pandemic year, she said 2021 comes with new delivery locations outside of Churchill County.
“Everybody loves helping Nevada’s agriculture producers,” he stressed.
Kelly said the Great Basin Basket Farm Share that’s managed by the Fallon Food Hub is the second oldest farm share in the Silver State. It includes 20 partner farms and ranches producing more than 50 different crop varieties. Producers grow about 47 vegetables and fruits ranging from apples to winter squash.
According to Kelly, the advantages of grown food are their nutrition, benefit to the environment, the boost to local economies and the taste. Kelly said consumers will benefit from a farm share because they know where the food is grown.
Already, the food hub is in its spring/summer season for 20 weeks and will then slide into the fall/winter season. Consumers may have either a weekly semi-weekly delivery or one-time boxes. Summer-share types of food include produce, eggs, beef, coffee and flowers. Locally, the orders are available for pickup at Lattin Farms west of Fallon or Renown in Fernley. Other locations are in Sparks, Reno, Carson City, Dayton, Minden and Gardnerville.
