Source:  NCSU COOPERATIVE EXTENSION, 7/15/21


NC State Extension announced that it has expanded the Vacationer Supported Agriculture (VSA) initiative in 2021. The concept for VSA was developed by a team of specialists from NC State Extension and Tourism Extension as part of a 3-year USDA Farmers Market Promotion Program grant. VSA coordinates the sale of weekly produce bags to vacationers over the summer tourism season. As illustrated in this short animation, NC State’s project team and county Extension partners coordinate groups of local farmers in the growing, packaging, and delivery of bags of local produce to pick-up locations convenient to vacationers. This coordination is introduced to vacationers through local realty companies.

The VSA project was piloted in Ocean Isle Beach in 2018 and was expanded in 2019 and 2020 to other Brunswick County beaches (Sunset Beach, Holden Beach, Oak Island, and Bald Head Island), as well as Wrightsville Beach and Surf City. The program experienced exponential growth as a result of the 2019 expansion and had strong sales in 2020 despite the pandemic.

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