Sweet Grown Alabama Blogs

In 2023, Sweet Grown Alabama was awarded a specialty crop block grant titled "Expanding the fan base of Alabama specialty crops at university football games" from the USDA for the promotion of specialty crops. The nature of this project is below: 

A growing number of Alabama consumers are consistently turning to highly processed convenience foods instead of choosing fresh, healthy products like fruits, vegetables and pecans. According to the CDC, Alabama has a nearly 40 percent obesity rate. The state’s obesity rate increased 7.9 percentage points from 2011 to 2021. Alabama farmers are growing fresh, healthy products, but consumers often choose the “easy” route instead of taking the extra step to find and purchase healthy products. These consumers need to know that accessing and preparing specialty crops is simple, convenient and affordable. They also need to know specialty crops can be prepared in delicious, simple ways so they will be influenced to purchase and prepare these products in their own homes. We believe it is important to meet these consumers where they are, and since college football is a treasured pastime in the state, we believe this is a place to educate consumers on specialty crop procurement and preparation who wouldn’t attend a specific workshop or seminar. With every consumer we educate on purchasing specialty crops, we grow the market demand for Alabama’s specialty crop producers. We will advertise and pass out samples of in season specialty crops at six college football games across the state in the 2024 football season. 

We are pleased to report this project was a success, allowing us to connect with and educate 5,678,022 consumers and benefit 3,000 specialty crop farmers in Alabama. 

Below is a summary of each football game along with a photo. 

We handed out 1,500 honey straws and educational flyers at Auburn University football game booth set up on August 31, 2024. This honey was sourced from a small farm, EPIC Family Farm outside Auburn, AL. Staff from our project partners, the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries (pictured), were on hand to assist.

We handed out 300 honey straws and educational flyers at University of Alabama at Birmingham football game booth set up on September 28, 2024. This honey was sourced from Wildly Blessed Farm in Eclectic, AL who is a female beekeeper. The weather wasn't great this day, so the University of Alabama at Birmingham offered to allow us another athletic event booth set up for "free" due to poor weather and foot traffic at the first event. We also set up a booth and distributed educational flyers and honey straws at the University of Alabama at Birmingham home baseball game vs. the University of Alabama on March 11, 2025. This was an excellent additional promotional opportunity. In stadium advertisements also ran promoting specialty crops during the entire football season. 

We handed out over 1,000 satsumas and educational flyers at the University of Alabama football game booth on November 16, 2024. The satsumas were sourced from Tolar Satsuma Farm in Pansey, AL.