ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. –  A multimillion-dollar food access initiative aimed at addressing fresh food insecurity is unraveling, just a week after the St. Louis County Council approved $3.2 million for the effort.

The project, which initially garnered support for its promise to uplift local agriculture and improve food access, is now facing serious concerns over transparency and management. 

Three participating farms have backed out, and one founder is speaking out about how the grant is being handled.

Dail Chambers, founder of Coahoma Orchards, says she signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Jan. 2 but wasn’t invited to any planning meetings until months later, after the grant was awarded. 

She says her first meeting took place on April 18.

By Saturday, Janette Lewis, founder of lead agency Rustic Roots Sanctuary, had reallocated $750,000 away from one of the program’s key partners, Hosco Foods. 

The justification? A reported lack of participation.

According to our partners at the post dispatch, three farms have now dropped out.

Confluence Farms, which was set to receive $250,000 before withdrawing. The financial decision of the city, Chambers says, raised red flags.

“If they would do it to them, then they could do it to me,” she told FOX 2, explaining her growing discomfort with how the program was being run.

Since then, Heru Urban Farming and Coahoma Orchards have both exited the program as well, making them the second and third farms to leave.

Chambers shared a text message she says she sent to Councilwoman Shalonda Webb on Monday evening, expressing her concerns and stating she no longer felt comfortable moving forward. 

In response, Webb spoke from the council floor and questioned Chambers’ business qualifications, a claim Chambers strongly denies.

“I believe that the Black community has been disenfranchised in so many ways,” Chambers said. “And food access has been one of the major ways. So it saddens me that I have to be in this predicament where I would normally align with.”

As of now, neither Rustic Roots nor Webb has responded to FOX 2’s latest request for comment.