Innovative Partnership Brings Fresh Produce to Low-Income Residents

This past summer, an innovative partnership was created between the Emergency FoodShelf Network, the University of Minnesota Extension Service New Immigrant Farm Program and the Youth Farm and Market Project (a Wedgeshare recipient in 2001), to help meet the marketing needs of small scale immigrant farmers, and help meet the nutritional needs of thousands of low-income Twin Cities residents, while providing youth farmers with a unique introduction to produce marketing and social service in a variety of Twin Cities' communities.

Initiated by the Emergency FoodShelf Network, this collaboration was formed to cooperatively achieve the goals of the three organizations to 1) provide low income residents with a wide variety of locally grown fresh produce, 2) provide a dependable seasonal market for very small scale immigrant farmers who farm three acres of land or less, and 3) engage inner city youth in produce marketing and social service. The results were: distribution of more than 50,000 pounds of fresh produce to more than 1500 low-income households in eleven Twin Cities' neighborhoods; the weekly purchase of $300-$400 worth of vegetables from each participating grower; and the opportunity for youth farmers from the Lyndale, Powderhorn (Mpls.) and Westside (St. Paul) neighborhoods to play a key logistical role in working with immigrant farmers and emergency food shelf staff.

The produce was greatly appreciated by recipients at each of the neighborhood distributions. Fresh produce is not only nutritious, it also provides color, variety and texture to make a meal special. While many Wedge shoppers couldn't imagine going a week, a day or even a meal without fresh produce, many of our low-income neighbors consider it a luxury outside of their means, given their limited disposable income. While food shelf staff throughout the Twin Cities have reported that fresh produce is one of their highest demand items, they unfortunately cannot distribute significant amounts of produce due to limited refrigeration capacity, inadequate supply and lack of produce handling expertise. The summer mass distributions were a very effective way to distribute 2 to 3 tons of produce at each neighborhood site.

The project began with the U of M Immigrant Farm Program staff identifying nine farmers who were interested in participation. These farmers met many times with staff from the three organizations before the growing season to determine which produce items would be most popular and to negotiate prices and amounts that would be grown. While each of these concerns was critical, the most important aspect of these meetings was to create the shared trust necessary on both the buying and the selling end that would be crucial for the project to be successful. Over the course of the season, growers marketed more than thirty kinds of vegetables, ranging from staple crops like potatoes, onions, tomatoes, zucchini and cucumbers to exotic crops such as white eggplant, red-kernel sweet corn, Asian greens and several unique varieties of Asian summer squash.

Agencies serving low income communities were brought together within the 11 communities and distribution sites were chosen, with low income residents of those communities being notified and registered in advance for the mass distributions. Emergency FoodShelf Network staff coordinated the distribution logistics at the sites.

Youth farmers toured the Wedge Produce department, learned about the Co-op and its commitment to purchasing locally grown organic produce and quality control tips for the varieties of vegetables to be delivered by immigrant farmers. Youth farmers were scheduled so that those who had worked on the previous delivery would help newcomers learn their job.

Farmers began delivering produce on July 10 and continued weekly through mid September. Growers delivered produce early in the morning of distribution days to the Lyndale neighborhood Youth Farm at the Charles Horn Towers. Youth Farm and Market Project Youth staff weighed produce, tabulated weights and prices on invoices, loaded the produce onto the delivery truck and then helped out with logistics at the distribution sites.

Over the course of handling tons of vegetables, we were continually impressed with the high quality of the vegetables that were delivered. Youth staff said they really enjoyed interacting with farmers and helping to distribute food to families in need. Getting to know the farmers was truly a wonderful experience; not only did they come from different cultural backgrounds, (Hmong and North African), they also ranged in age from the twenties to over sixty. Youth farmers visited farms of several of the growers on a Field Day in July organized by the Immigrant Farm Program.

Win/win is the now-mundane buzzword used to describe successful partnerships. Enrich/enrich or nurture/nurture seems like a more fitting description of the fruit of our partnership. While I am certainly proud of the accomplishments of our collaboration, it is the personal interactions that I'll most remember. The intersection of different cultures and accompanying language challenges, the mix of young and old, multi-ethnic urban youth and rural Hmong grandparents, how much we have in common and the ways we are culturally and individually unique. The frequent laughs and occasional frustrations we would share (like when the bottom fell out of a fifty pound case of beautiful miniature-sized potatoes), how we helped each other with whatever work needed to be done (like repacking all those potatoes), the beautiful smiles of the Somali women in their gorgeous outfits at our first distribution, these are some of the wonderful market memories I'll carry with me until next spring. I can't wait!

Pat Kerrigan is Food Program Director for the Youth Farm and Market Program.