Antonina Anselmo
UX & Media Design

Public relations for a food recovery startup

PR strategy for a 501(c)(3) startup: negotiating placements on major media networks, securing corporate sponsorships, and producing the digital media content behind them.

Client
The Farmlink Project
Category
Nonprofit, 501(c)(3)
Role
Public relations strategy, media placements, digital content
Tools
Adobe Illustrator, Canva

Overview

The Farmlink Project moves surplus produce from farms to food banks. The work was to develop its public relations strategy: negotiate placements on major media networks, secure corporate sponsorships, and design the digital media content that carried the story.

Both halves mattered. The reporting had to make the scale of the problem legible to a general audience, and it had to make a specific, concrete ask of the corporate partners being approached.

Framing the problem

Slide citing a New York Times headline on the global hunger crisis alongside 2020-2021 projections

Problem framing from the progress report

Making the scale legible

The opening of the deck sets the problem against outside reporting rather than internal assertion, pairing national coverage with the projections behind it:

  • 265 million people facing acute hunger
  • One in two children in the US food insecure
  • Entire communities left behind

Against that, a single line carries the argument: we grow enough food to feed every person on the planet.

Slide showing 44 percent afraid they cannot afford groceries and 47 percent expecting household job losses

Audience-facing statistics

If America was 100 people slide with educate, donate and fundraise calls to action

Educate, donate, fundraise

Corporate partnerships

Chipotle Mexican Grill and The Farmlink Project partnership slide over rows of crops

Chipotle Mexican Grill partnership

Sponsorships and placements

Corporate sponsorship was pitched as a mutual story rather than a donation line: a partner’s logo next to a measured result, with the mechanics of how the partnership worked spelled out for press.

The same material was cut down for media outreach, which is what made national network placements possible without a press office.

Progress report slide reporting 5,190,607 pounds of produce, eggs and dairy delivered in two months

Reported in the progress report: 5,190,607 lbs of produce, eggs and dairy delivered in two months, alongside the partner organisations involved

Reported outcomes

Slide reporting 65 loads of food averaging six loads weekly and 2,548,000 pounds delivered by Uber Freight

65 loads, averaging six weekly

Slide reporting Farmlink turned the Uber Freight donation into an additional 800,000 meals over eight weeks

800,000 additional meals over eight weeks

Slide reporting over $320,000 paid to farmers and processors

Over $320,000 paid to farmers and processors

Slide reporting 183 internal volunteers, 5,735 newsletter recipients and 50,000,000 impressions with media logos

50,000,000 impressions, and the outlets behind them

Our social impact slide listing national media outlets that covered The Farmlink Project

Media coverage secured

Where the PR work shows up

The clearest read on the public relations side is the logo wall: ABC News, The New York Times, Variety, VOA News and others, reported alongside 300,000 impressions from social media within a 50,000,000 impression total.

All figures on this page are as reported in the Farmlink progress report and the Uber Freight partnership deck.

Farmlink progress report.pdf PDF · 5 pages · 1.2 MB · opens in a new tab

Farmlink × Uber Freight deck.pdf PDF · 42 pages · 7 MB · opens in a new tab

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