Local Roots: Hmong American Farmers Address Food Insecurity

Growing up, Janssen Hang never thought he’d pursue a career in farming. His parents were refugees of Hmong descent who came to the United States from Laos. Hang and his siblings spent the summers helping his mother and father pick cucumbers to earn extra money for family expenses.

“Farming was our summer chore. In all honesty, we did not enjoy a bit of it,” said Hang, who now serves as the executive director of the nonprofit Hmong American Farmers Association (HAFA) in Minnesota. “Reflecting back, though, I think it truly gave us lessons around commitment, work ethic, resilience. It wasn’t something that was taught, it was something that you had to live.”

Hang continues to live those lessons every day in his work with HAFA, an organization he co-founded with a group of Hmong American farming families in 2011.

Minnesota is home to the largest population of Hmong people in the United States—many of whom fled Southeast Asia in the 1970s and settled in America as political refugees after assisting the United States during the Vietnam War. A majority of those families relied on farming as a means of survival in their new country. Today, Hmong farmers make up more than 50 percent of all the farmers in the metropolitan farmers markets in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

HAFA recently took part in a Community-Based Organization Innovation Lab created by the CDC Foundation’s Hunger, Nutrition and Health Action Collaborative, bringing together organizations from across the country to develop and share strategies for addressing the health impacts of food insecurity. Hang welcomed the opportunity to engage with other community-based organizations and share HAFA's experience using local agriculture to improve access to culturally relevant, nutritious food.

“We each have our own specific geography and demographics,” Hang said. “But the work that the CDC Foundation, HAFA and the other partner organizations do is a collective effort, and that’s exciting.”

For HAFA, supporting farmers and expanding community access to healthy food have always gone hand in hand. The organization was founded to bring Hmong American farmers together to create more opportunities. For decades, Hmong farmers were at a disadvantage because they leased their land through verbal agreements that offered no longevity or legal protection. HAFA worked to change this by purchasing a 155-acre farm outside of St. Paul, and they now offer long-term leases to over a dozen Hmong American farming families. HAFA’s farm is also used to provide continuing education in sustainable agricultural practices to its members. The organization has expanded sales by developing a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model where people can purchase shares in the local harvest in advance and receive weekly boxes of fresh produce grown by HAFA farmers.

The work that the CDC Foundation, HAFA and the other partner organizations do is a collective effort, and that’s exciting.

In 2015, the regional health system M Health Fairview partnered with HAFA to launch the Veggie Rx program, a nutrition-focused initiative in which patients experiencing food insecurity who also have chronic health conditions like diabetes, obesity or cardiovascular disease are given a “prescription” of free, fresh produce. Through this program, HAFA farmers provide weekly boxes of produce that patients can then pick up from their health provider, removing any stigma families might feel around receiving food.

“At the end of the day, it’s a health prescription, right? You won’t be judged by members of your communities,” Hang said.

In the first year of the program, HAFA also invited the participating patients to the farm to connect with the producers who grow the food. “We let them see the fact that the farm is only a 20-minute drive away, and their food is coming from their backyard,” Hang said. What began as a pilot program with just 10 patients has since expanded to include 135 patients across six clinics and two hospitals.

Regardless of whatever struggles we run into, I feel that we can always overcome them as long as we do it together.

Building on this program, HAFA collaborated with the nonprofit Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) in Minneapolis to create a grant-funded Farm to Early Care initiative. The program provides fresh, culturally tailored produce from HAFA farms to local Hmong childcare providers.

“We use it to teach younger children about eating healthy as an avenue of preventive care so that when they get older, they’re more likely to consume fresh, healthy produce as well,” Hang said.

At the heart of this program, and all of HAFA's work, is the belief that investing in both farmers and the people they feed can create stronger food systems, improve health outcomes and build a brighter future. This philosophy is shared by the Hunger, Nutrition and Health Community-Based Organization Innovation Lab and its partners, who recognize that addressing hunger takes a collective effort.

“The solution to these challenges is community,” Hang said. “Regardless of whatever struggles we run into, I feel that we can always overcome them as long as we do it together."

To learn more about the Hunger, Nutrition and Health Action Collaborative, visit impacthunger.org.

Header and teaser photo by Montana Scheff; courtesy of the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation