How can we help solve regional food insecurity?
If you’re on this list, you know that food is medicine.
Unfortunately, access to high quality organic, unprocessed food is very limited to those who need it the most.
How can we get more of this food into the kitchens of those with food insecurity?
This question comes to my mind all the time when I’m walking through our fields full of gorgeous high quality organic vegetables.
As an organic vegetable farm, we consistently have an ABUNDANCE of healthy, high quality organic food.
But that doesn’t mean it’s FREE.
In fact, let me tell you a secret - much of the “extra” food on farms is NEVER even harvested, because the most expensive part of growing food is harvesting it, washing it, storing it and packaging it. Not to mention delivery.
Again, we wonder: How can we get more of this food into the kitchens of those with food insecurity?
At Moon Valley Farm, we donate as much food as we can afford to.
We donate food that has already been harvested but cannot be sold for one reason or another.
It becomes MUCH harder to give away food that costs us a lot of LABOR dollars to harvest, wash, store, pack and deliver, however.
In fact, it’ll quickly put us in the negatives as a weather-reliant business with tight margins.
We needed to find another way to grow our impact.
For years we’ve been unable to solve this problem on our own, which is why we’re SO excited to share about the different ways we’re partnering with our community to solve this problem. TOGETHER.
The first opportunity is for you - or ANYONE - interested in helping us increase our impact and get high quality organic produce to families in need. It’s a DONATION SUBSCRIPTION program. For just $1/day ($30/month) you can give the gift of veggies to a family in need. Choose from one of our 4 non-profit partner organizations to target families in different regions throughout the Mid-Atlantic.
Another way we’re helping to be part of the solution of regional food insecurity is collaborating with several incredible non-profit organizations in the region.
We recently started a partnership with LindaBen Foundation, a non-profit organization committed to helping those in need and has launched a “Food is Medicine” program that is distributing food to over 250 families in Title 1 schools in PG County, MD – schools where over 85% of the families qualify for free lunches – every month of the school year.
The Food is Medicine program includes secured funding to distribute 250 boxes every month of Moon Valley Farm produce (did you see our Instagram reel of packing them yet?). In addition to the veggie boxes, the families are also receiving meat, eggs, pantry and household staples.
When farmer Emma went to deliver the boxes to these schools in late December on the last day of school for the year, the families were lined up around the block to receive the food that LindaBen had organized for them. They were extremely grateful.
Moon Valley Farm also works with The Gleaning Project, to whom we donated over 8500 pounds of produce in 2023 – valued at over $33,000.
And finally, our CSA members help us get food to those in need every single week when they choose to donate their share on weeks they don’t need it. Last year, CSA members donated a total of 120 boxes!!! We distribute those boxes to either the Frederick Food Security Network or the Enoch Pratt Library – both organizations give the produce for free to those in need in Frederick and Baltimore cities.
It has taken years for us to learn how to increase our impact to those in need, and the solution is clear as day: community collaboration is required.
Will you join our community by adding a donation subscription, too?
Join us here and make a difference for only $1/day.
Thank you for your support as we work together to strengthen our local food system and our community through organic food.