Market Farming

[Pat Meadows <pat AT meadows.pair.com>]

On Sun, 2 Jan 2005 21:30:35 -0500, you wrote:

>As a CSA that was originally formed to make nutritionally dense 
>produce available to young mothers and other at risk groups, we have 
>a lot of experience donating surplus produce to neighborhood agencies.
>
>Without going into a lot of detail, I have to agree: volunteers at 
>our area food banks tend to make off with the best produce (some 
>bragging to us about how many bushels of our tomatoes they had taken 
>home). 

Not here.  (The food bank here is open two mornings a
month.)  Whatever is brought is immediately distributed to
its intended recipients.

We have brought produce and seen it put on the line - our
food bank works like a cafeteria line - and all of it went
to the recipients.  Every bit.  This we saw for ourselves.  
As recipients (our income makes us eligible to be
recipients), we have also seen produce donated by others go,
in its entirety, to recipients.

We don't bother to go to the food bank anymore though,
because the food given out there - with very rare exceptions
- is not healthful food so it doesn't seem worthwhile for us
to spend that much time waiting for stale bagels, stale
doughnuts, sugary desserts, and the like.  We don't eat like
that.  Eating in such a manner would only further damage our
already problematic health.  

We'll still donate our excess produce in season though.

Pat
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