For at least the past decade, we (and CSA members) have been donating vegetables and fruit each week to a local food pantry called Pajaro Valley Loaves and Fishes. For years, Loaves and Fishes volunteer Bob Montague was the face of the food pantry program for us. He would arrive every Thursday with an old Ford pick-up truck and load up the CSA vegetables donated by members who were on vacation that week or had even paid to provide a donation share weekly. Since the old truck gave up the ghost, we’ve been delivering the vegetables directly to the food pantry ourselves.Loaves and Fishes was launched to provide emergency meals after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, but since then has become a steady source of nutritious food for the Watsonville community. They provide free hot lunches every weekday and free bags of groceries to people in need 5 days a week.
Loaves and Fishes’ energetic new director, Kristal Cabellero, came out to visit our farm this spring to update us about their program and strengthen the connection to the farm. As we walked around the farm with Kristal, she told us that the demand for food assistance in Watsonville has risen greatly in the past couple years and they are struggling to meet this demand. She is committed to making sure fresh nutritious vegetables are well represented in the foods they provide. She expressed their gratitude to us and you for the donations we provide, and Loaves and Fishes featured our farm in a newsletter article to their supporters.
Last year we delivered 8,735 pounds of fresh produce to help fill the grocery bags and make balanced hot lunches at Loaves and Fishes. We donate produce that comes back unsold from our farmers market and farmstand in addition to the vegetables that are donated by CSA customers who choose the donation option for weeks that they are unable to use their veggies. The need is great, and we feel good about our part in helping people eat well.
You can donate a CSA share any time that you know that you won’t be able to pick up your veggies that week. All you have to do is go to your account and look for the green “Summary” box on the upper right hand side. You will see a blue box that states “Change Location” across from “Pick-up Site”. Click it and choose “Donate” as your pick-up site. That will send your box to our Farm Cooler on Thursday to be delivered to Loaves and Fishes. IMPORTANT: don’t forget to change it back to your usual pick-up site when you are back from vacation. This cannot be done in advance. If you prefer, you can always send an email to our CSA administrator, Sarah, with the details and she will do the leg-work for you. Also, your donation is tax-deductible, so you can receive a donation form upon request. Thank you for helping to feed hungry people with your donations!
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