More from the Road

In the past week I’ve left the Northwest and am currently on my way to Texas, Oklahoma and Tennessee in the coming week. In the past two days in Arizona I’ve seen some sunshine, cool temperatures with a mix of torrential desert rain, hail and even snow in the mountains. I'm becoming quite comfortable with my rental car; we now have traveled more than 3,500 miles together. I hope that the Midwest and Northeast regions show me some mercy as I travel through the start of winter.

I was so pleased to see more than 300 visits to the blog after last week's posts resulting in an increase of followers. Thank you all for the support, interest in this trip and the work of Salvation Farms.

Here is an update of sites I’ve visited in the last week:

Monday 28^th

Second Harvest Food Bank, Watsonville, CA

Second Harvest Food Banks (SHFB) is the 2nd oldest food bank in the country located in Santa Cruz County. They provide services to roughly 55,000 individuals in this small county. Of the more than 7 million pounds they distribute annually, 54% of their inventory is fresh foods. That is a lot of produce! They source this fresh food from the

Farm to Family program facilitated by the California Association of Food Banks, from produce growers and packers in their region as well as from Ag Against Hunger (see visit information below). Some of the crops that SHFB obtains from its regions producers include broccoli, cauliflower, salad mix, head lettuce and berries. Produce is distributed through mobile markets, orders by agencies serving those in need of food assistance as well as from a shopping area in the SHFB facility where agency come to obtain food products.

SHFB coordinates the Passion for Produce program that engages volunteers who are recipients of charitable food in peer to peer training. These trainings consist of volunteers acting as nutrition ambassadors to provide nutrition education, cooking classes and distribution of educational materials consisting of recipe and tip cards for fresh foods utilization. Thank you Deborah and Brooke for the time you took out of your day to provide me with a tour and discussion of the important work you are doing at SHFB.

Ag Against Hunger, Spreckels, CA

Ag Against Hunger (AAH) is located in a region of the Salinas Valley that historically produced sugar beets. This region is now home to some of the largest family based farm businesses in the country. AAH is a farmer/producer initiated and managed organization; 80% of the organization's board members are farmers. The founding farmers did not want the food they produce to go to waste and knew that they could help feed some of their region's hungry with their surplus if an entity was established to help manage the logistics of doing so.

The staff is small and organizes the management of donated agricultural surplus and the distribution of produce into the charitable food system of their immediate region. They make a concerted effort to make sure the regions closest to the producers are served first and then additional inventory is made available to food banks throughout California and even some out of state food banks as well. Saint Mary’s Food Bank (below) is a recipient of some of AAH produce. Annually AAH moves between 10-12 million pounds of surplus produce.

During the peak growing/harvest season AAH organizes large groups often associated with companies, churches and community organizations to glean large farm fields. They often have as many as 100 gleaners out in the field. That is amazing! Thank you Lindsay for your work and welcoming my visit to AAH.

Thursday 1st

Hidden Harvest, Coachella, CA

I was fortunate to get a brief tour and conversation with the Assistant Director of Hidden Harvest (HH). Very similar to Ag Against Hunger,

HH works directly with fresh food producers to capture their surplus produce. Located in the agricultural Coachella Valley, home to the resort town of Palm Springs, HH provided fresh foods to more than 100 agencies that serve roughly 80,000 people annually. All fresh food is rescued and donated. Distribution of HH inventory is completely free of associated cost to the agencies serving the food insecure. This organization has a very small staff and is extremely committed to providing the best service possible to both the food donor and the food recipient sites. They have a high level of professionalism and commitment to managing agricultural surplus. They are highly skilled at moving this sensitive product as is Ag. Against Hunger. Buy-in by all staff and knowledge of how to handle and move this product is extremely apparent. Thanks Sandra for your time and dedication to your mission. You are doing amazing work.

Friday 2nd

Saint Mary’s Food Bank Alliance, Phoenix, AZ

I had been looking forward to this visit to Saint Mary’s Food Bank (SMFB) since I met Frank Bonner in Columbus Ohio this past spring while I was working for the Vermont Foodbank and had attended a Feeding America working conference on produce sourcing

and distribution. Frank is Food Resource Developer at SMFB and is one of two gems I found in Arizona. He has a wealth of knowledge and fully understands the national/international wholesale produce market. Frank has been able to incorporate inspection standards, safe handling and storage practices for all fresh food that enter SMFB. He has also helped train other food bank staff around the U.S. on how to successfully incorporate increased volumes of fresh perishables and how to appropriately handle this product.

SMFB is an impressive food bank with a rich history. It was the first food bank established in America and shows a tremendous commitment for incorporating programs that provide services directly to individuals, in addition to the traditional distribution to agencies serving the food insecure. The facility is large, efficient and impressive and includes multiple coolers all set at different temperatures creating appropriate storage spaces for multiple produce types. The facility houses a Community Kitchen facility, demonstration classroom and resource center for participants in the

Community Kitchen program. A Value Market Place is located within the facility as well as a building solely to providing food to individual seeking food assistance; it is essentially a food pantry within the food bank.

SMFB serves 13 of the state’s 15 counties with emergency food items. They provide additional products to help lighten the load of the financially insecure of Arizona, i.e. baby formula, diapers and hygiene products. SMFB distributes close to 75 million pounds annually, of which roughly 13 million pounds is produce. This is an impressive and model food bank for sure! Thanks Frank for your time, the tour and lunch; so great to see you again.

Saturday 3rd

Community Food Resource Center, Community Food Bank, Tucson, AZ

The Community Food Resource Center (CFRC) is a program of the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona located in the greater Tucson area. I had not planned to visit this site when planning this research trip but I had met several individuals who worked at the CFRC while at the CFSC conference in Oakland and decided this should be added to my itinerary since I would be in their area. I am so happy I did.

Jamie de Zubeldia is the Director of Farm Programs for the CFRC. He hosted my visit and met me at the Marana Heritage Farm; a 25 acre piece of state land that the food bank has been granted usage. What is happening on this land is so impressive and innovative. The land supports a large scale

composting operation, a youth farm project, a small scale farmer incubation/cultivation program, a new orchard made available through a grant award, a food forest of native perennial fruiting species and a plot of native and culturally appropriate cactus variety called Nopal, aka prickly pear.

Food produced at the Marana Heritage Farm is incorporated in the Community Food Bank’s inventory as well as distributed through a network of farmers markets coordinated by the CFRC. These markets earn revenue to support the CFRC programs as well as bring in revenue for participating farmers and provide fresh food to citizens able to pay for locally produced foods. Anyone can shop at these markets and all accept SNAP (food stamp) benefits.

After our visit to this site, we visited a community garden site as well as an urban farm/CSA (Community Support Agriculture farm). It gives me great hope to know that these types of community food security efforts are taking place under the direction and investment of an emergency/charitable food distribution organization.

Who would have thought that in the middle of the Arizona desert I would find such a wealth of food and food based knowledge. Frank & Jamie are on different ends of the food access/production spectrum and are such valuable assets to the nation’s charitable/emergency food industry and food security sector. What an honor it was to spend time with each and know that I will maintain a working relationship with them.

******************************************************************************

Several of the organizations I visited last week work in partnership with their state’s Department of Corrections, utilizing in-mates and offenders in the process of gleaning, sorting and re-packing rescued fresh foods.

Please visit our How to Help page to find out how you can contribute to support this research trip and the future of Salvation Farms. On Monday, Dec. 5th, I will travel 12 hours, a total of 780 miles. The rental I am driving is an economy car and has been averaging 30 mile per gallon. A $50 contribution will cover roughly 425 miles if gas stays around 3.50 per gallon. Contributions of any size are welcome and appreciated.