In the 90-minute ritual, she distributes buckets of grain and hay for the cows’ breakfast, scrapes away animal feces, fills the water trough bucket by bucket, milks the dairy cows, feeds the barnyard cats and new kittens, and shepherds sometimes recalcitrant cows out to pasture. Next, she replenishes feed and water for the chickens and lets them out into their area.

It’s a lot of work. “To be honest, I take a nap every single morning,” laughs Maffie, who is studying chemistry at Bates College. “But I’ve learned more about cows and chickens than I ever knew before.” She’s part of the Anne Saxelby Legacy Fund (ASLF), a unique month-long immersive farm apprenticeship program that provides farm internships and apprentice opportunities to students and career changers.

The ASLF was founded in 2022 by the family and friends of pioneering cheesemonger Anne Saxelby of Saxelby Cheesemongers after her sudden passing. Saxelby, a beloved figure in the cheese world, championed American farmstead cheese, leading to its rise in prominence. Working on farms was life changing for her and instilled a desire to support small producers and change our industrial food system.

“We need to educate this next generation of farmers” in order to bring about systemic change, says Susie Cover, the ASLF’s executive director. Those who enter farming-adjacent careers will also be better equipped to make change. Learning the art of affinage (the process of aging cheese), herd management like Maffie, or how to properly prune plants to encourage stem growth are experiences that students will “never get by learning in a classroom,” she says. “The hands-on part is the most important.”

“The hands-on part is the most important.”

Nearly 100 apprentices are working in 60 farms across the country; one is employed at London’s famed Neal’s Yard Dairy. Placements include produce, animal, hemp, and dairy farms, and cheesemaking and salumi operations in locations aligned with the fund’s mission and values of quality sustainable agriculture.

The program has doubled in size each year; 500 applications were received in 2024, a result of extensive outreach at agriculture, culinary, food studies, and trade programs, postings on job list serves, as well as word of mouth. However, no farm experience is required, stresses Cover, just the ability to handle the physical work and to take initiative. The ASLF is also working to become a college-accredited program.

Apprentices are paid an hourly wage of $20 for a 40-hour workweek and an expense stipend; the ASLF covers transportation and housing costs, removing barriers for prospective applicants and for farms to receive much-needed help.There are frequent check-ins with the apprentices and farms to ensure all is going smoothly.

For apprentices, not having to worry about costs is a huge relief. “To [be able to] put my all into it made me want to put more energy and effort into making the most of this program,” says Mona Ziabari, an apprentice at Fisheye Farms, a sustainably run urban farm in Detroit. A student with limited funds, she’s unsure if she could have applied.

Zibari is a food studies major at New York University and an accomplished cook who envisions a career in the culinary arts. “It is super important to learn about the food production side because I think a lot of people in our society are not educated on what it looks like,” she says.

Zibari had worked in restaurants, but she was taken aback by the physical stamina farming requires. Fisheye’s owners arranged to have a bicycle for Ziabari to bike to work from another urban farm where she is housed, and to stage at farm-to-table restaurants on her days off to broaden her understanding.

“We wouldn’t have been able to have apprentices if they weren’t paid for,” says Ryan McPherson, owner of Glidden Point Oyster Farms in Maine. The ASLF approached McPherson this year to include an aquaculture opportunity. It also added five urban farms to its roster.

McPherson was impressed by the caliber of the applicants, farms, and vetting process. He appreciates the opportunity to share knowledge, since farmed aquaculture is still a very young industry and its connection to and overlap with agriculture is not yet well explored. “It is important,” says McPherson, “to be in those conversations.” Since his farm’s two apprentices had prior terrestrial farming experience, he expects that they’re able to share insights into similarities and differences into the two types of farming. The apprentices have been grading out and redistributing seed, conducting farm maintenance, and washing and packing oysters for sale and shipping.

To Bliss Battle, an alumna of New York City’s Brooklyn Grange, the financial support signaled that “people wanted to see me succeed,” she says. Battle left art school to try farming because it “involved manual labor and being in nature.” She says she “came out way more confident in my skills, like how to use all the tools, and in production-level farming,” and developed an appreciation of growing food for mutual aid and not for profit. She was later hired at another farm by a former Grange supervisor.

Battle is now attending welding school so she can repair farm machinery. “I want to be an asset to my community,” she says. “And my sense of community has been more solidified through the work I’ve been doing as a farmhand.”

“I want to be an asset to my community.”

Ziabari’s eyes were also opened by a blend of practical knowledge and sociocultural perspectives. “I’ve been learning how culture and race intersect with food production,” she says, noting that “food deserts are prevalent” in the more diverse areas of Detroit, already a multi-racial and ethnic city.

Ziabari credits the city’s growing urban farm movement for improving food access for marginalized communities. The farms have a “progressive approach to incorporating culture,” she says, growing produce that is meaningful to residents in a nod to the city’s history.

“It’s just crazy how people don’t think about it in that way,” she says. “I’m one of them. You’re not forced to think about it unless you’re doing it, having conversations about it, or actually having to get on your knees and do the work.”

The experience Maffie gained with farms, cows and cheesemaking—her farm’s owner is developing a cheese program—fit her interest in food science.

She was also surprised at some of the lesser-known ways politics and government affect farms. She learned that farms are required to pay for the USDA inspectors who inspect their meat, which can “put a strain on both butchers and small farms,” says Maffie, because larger farms can slaughter so many more animals that the cost becomes nominal. Also, since only one USDA inspector shows up at a slaughterhouse, the animals on smaller farms wind up subject to more scrutiny than animals at larger ones. With higher volumes, employees there assist the lone USDA inspector who can’t watch each process at once.

Remarkably, while some feeder programs may be more diverse than in the past, the ASLF team was surprised that nearly 70 percent of this year’s applications came from women. Farming though is a white and male-dominated profession; the number of female farmers has held steady in recent years, according to USDA data.

“I think it is probably a backlash to the fact that it is a male-dominated field,” says Maffie. “Now, there’s a bunch of women who are like, ‘No, I want to do that, too,’ so I’m going to start setting myself up to do that.”

Surprisingly, women “outnumber males in aquaculture in Maine,” says McPherson. He bought his farms from women owners and his staff is well over half female.

“I think it is really cool that people can see [food production] as a career option, especially young women,” says Battle. She says programs such as the ASLF can have a huge impact on people’s lives. “Your formative years, you can see a subversive career path and that it is sustainable. And you can go where you want with it,” she adds.

The post This Immersive Farm Apprenticeship is Training the Next Generation of Farmers appeared first on Modern Farmer.

Umi Jenkins

Director of Mississippi Farm to School Network

Our work is centered a lot around young people in grades Kindergarten through 12th. This past year, we received the Educator of the Year Award from Young, Gifted, and Empowered, because we really put a lot of emphasis around educating the community on food literacy. We’ve had higher community engagement and that’s come with our Youth Ambassador Program. Students participated from different school districts all over the state through this program. Their parents would also join, so it became a virtual network with agricultural-based learning, cooking demos—and all these things are done virtually. This level of community engagement was what we wanted, so farm-to-school doesn’t feel like something that’s so logistical and just taking place among food service directors and specialized folks.

The Farm Bill affects us in that it allows necessary changes and improvements in our agricultural system. I see the Farm Bill as something instrumental that can get your hopes up then feel quite deflating when the implementation isn’t fulfilled.

I just think Farm Bill priorities need to be radically refocused, which, depending on who you ask, feels like a difficult thing to address. But I think the application process for a lot of folks—especially farmers and organizations—is beyond frustrating and has been overly addressed in conversations around what needs to change. And I do feel that’s part of the equity and discriminatory practices that comes up with the USDA in terms of accessibility.

There’s been a lack of investment into specialty crop producers who are not growing as much as the commodity producers. And so, therefore, a lot of the funding and resources is going to the big commodity producers. Specialty crops make up a vast majority of what people need in terms of health and wellness—they don’t need processed food that comes from commodity crops like corn or soybeans. We don’t need that for our health and well-being. We need specialty crops, okra and tomatoes and all the different varieties of fruits and vegetables. If we limit that resource, limit support to the farmers who are growing those things, we are in essence dwindling that beautiful and strong element to the community, which fuels our health. It’s our food source. So, if this keeps getting neglected year after year, or the specialty crop farmers are having more and more difficulty applying for loans or getting the support they need—it just really damages and has been damaging our communities for so long. So, that is the type of implementation that I’m not seeing in my local and regional area. It’s not impacting my region. I haven’t seen any type of significant investment into specialty crop farmers. So, that’s something I think should change. 

If the Farm Bill doesn’t prioritize communities like mine, it would create even greater fatigue in our communities. People are exhausted. They’re exhausted with solutions being present and not being accessible. Something being dangled in front of you is quite frustrating. So, if something that could benefit us is proposed and suggested but not actually implemented or passed, I do feel it’s going to affect our local economy in a way that will create greater decline. We are seeing more and more young people who are leaving the state. And how can we blame them if we’re not creating economic opportunities? In rural areas, agriculture is a really large sector of their economic mobility. So, if the agricultural sector is not being invested in and uplifted, then you’re going to see these rural areas decline even more. And that will get into other discussions like the drug issues that are happening in our communities where there is poverty. That would just exacerbate already existing issues in addition to creating a great mistrust in our ability to look to legislators to solve problems.

I think even if one or two of these things that could benefit our community were strongly implemented and the follow through was there, community morale would boost. We would see improvement in terms of mental health in our community. I think we would see a decline in social issues that come about when there is a lack of investment and just a lack of interest in the community. People are unconsciously or consciously aware when they feel like their community is not expected to thrive. If there’s a shift in that then I think we’ll have more jobs, more creative jobs, more jobs that are rooted in tech because when people have a sense of job security and food security, it allows them to be more open and receptive to learning new things. 

It feels like this spiritual component that is all together left out of the conversation with how people connect with their food and how they connect with land. There’s really not space for that at a policy discussion level, but it’s such a huge part of why people even remain in certain areas despite the poverty. There’s a cultural connection as well as a connection to how people relate to the food ways. So, I think it’s important that we’re listening to the community, that part of the narrative is taken into account in how we prioritize our communities because again, this affects mental health. These are folks’ livelihoods. In terms of farmers, this is how they earn their living and how they feed their families. So, if we’re not associating that with our overall community wellness and plans to improve our community, then I don’t think we’re actively listening to the needs of our community. We’re just putting a bandaid on it or coming up with anecdotal solutions. This isn’t just land. There was bloodshed here and babies born here and bread is broken here. There were activists and people who have fought for this land and fought for the right to grow food here and to worship here. It’s hard to give that up. It’s hard to feel like you’re being run off of something that your family has lived on and loved. 

 There’s so much that is in this land. And so we honor it, and that has to be considered with resources and how we conserve it to ensure we’re creating a container to remember these things and still value these things as a part of our community.

The post Faces of the Farm Bill: Umi Jenkins appeared first on Modern Farmer.

Choctaw Tribal Members

Choctaw Fresh

Tomika Bell (Choctaw Fresh Produce distribution manager): As Native Americans, we live in rural areas, which means we don’t have the ability to be near any kind of grocery stores or farm stands. But Choctaw Fresh gives people the ability to utilize our mobile market, and put farms in certain areas, which means we’re able to reach those people that live in scarce areas that aren’t able to have access to eating healthy. 

Nigel Gibson (Tribal Council member): Food is an essential need to life. Within our community, we have a high rate of diabetes with all ages within our tribe. What Choctaw Fresh is trying to provide is a healthier way of eating, and also educate tribe members on how they need to eat regardless if they’re diabetic or not. 

Bell: We consider the land our motherland and Choctaw Fresh takes care of it by growing organic. We’re not actually disturbing our soil, which is our way of taking care of our land. I feel like the Farm Bill could help us a lot by getting a lot of our land back. We don’t have much access to a lot of good farmland. 

Gibson: To be able to expand like that would not only give us opportunities food wise within the community, but it also could give us economical help within the community because when you expand, you’re able to provide more job opportunities.

We’re always looking for economical opportunities, whether it’s federal funding or revenue from your own tribal casino. Having that kind of funding for Choctaw Fresh would be tremendous. 

Bell: Access to broadband is also an issue for us because without it we’re not able to reach out and do what we need to do out there. But, personally, I don’t believe that the Farm Bill will make a big impact on us other than the ability to get a better rate of payment for our workers. We hire harvesters, harvest techs, high tunnel maintenance workers, farmers, and anyone who’s operating from the distribution side. We started out paying them $8 an hour and have been able to find the funding to increase that to $12. If Farm Bill funding goes through, we will be able to increase that to $15 an hour. Good paying wages are really important for us to be able to retain labor workers and avoid high turnover. Being able to pay them more would help with food insecurity and food access because if we don’t have workers then we don’t have food.

The post Faces of the Farm Bill: Choctaw Tribal Members appeared first on Modern Farmer.

Darnella Winston

Project Director/Cooperative Field Specialist Federation of Southern Cooperatives

Our organization was born out of the Civil Rights movement in 1972, and our focus has been corporate development, land retention, and advocacy. But, lately, we’ve been working more with youth. What we’re realizing is that there’s a whole other audience out there that we’re missing, which is the next generation. And by the next generation I mean everyone from six years old all the way to 46 years old to move into the swing of agriculture. 

I tell people that the Farm Bill sets the priorities for the food and the farm. It is one of the largest bills in terms of money that comes out of the government. We have to be able to say where we want to allocate that money. We try to come up with priorities and recommendations as far as what our members and our clients would like to see. One or two of the priorities that we push for is for the microloan to go from $50,000 to $100,000 because that’s a loan rural people are able to receive. It’s not as much based on credit as it is your work and what it is you claim that you’re trying to do. One of the things that we pushed was for the microloan’s increased limit. There’s loan forgiveness within the USDA’s Office of Partnerships and Public Engagement lending program, which has been a slow start and we’re not sure what’s going to happen with that. But our property is an issue in the BIPOC community. And in order for us to keep saving our land, we need that relending program to be able to save that land for the next generation.

Broadband is also going to be very important for us in the Farm Bill. With the way times are going, that’s almost another way of business for the BIPOC community, but in order to be a part of it, you have to have broadband.

For example, we’re to the point now that some of the grocery stores want farmers to send them an email in the morning letting them know what the farmer is going to have that day. My father would type it up on a typewriter and mail it to them. By the time the grocery store gets it, somebody else might have sent in what they had and outbidded us because we don’t have internet.

If the Farm Bill could help us access better Broadband, people would be able to have a better understanding about local and fresh produce and where it’s grown. People want to be able to see what we’re doing. They ask, “Can we see it? Do you have a website to show us?” Having functioning internet and a website would be a total game changer, especially in the cooperative movement.

If communities like ours aren’t prioritized in the Farm Bill, it’s going to be a slow demise. It would send us back to the drawing board, trying to squeeze six quarters out of a dollar to keep the work going. We can’t totally rely on these programs because we don’t know which way they’re gonna go. We have to remember to cooperatively work together in community to try to push the priorities to the best that we can. But if we don’t get them, we still don’t give up on our work.

The post Faces of the Farm Bill: Darnella Winston appeared first on Modern Farmer.

As it rots, it emits methane, a greenhouse gas that for the first 20 years of its life in the atmosphere has 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide. What’s worse is that while all that edible food percolates in the dump, one in eight American adults is experiencing food insecurity.

But like many modern-day problems, there’s an app for that. 

These apps connect farmers, restaurants, and grocery stores that have extra food that might otherwise go to waste, with folks who bring it back into circulation. “If some of these apps can change how we think about food and can include educational components and resources, this may help their customers spread the word about the importance of reducing food waste,” says Dr. Tammara Soma, director of research for Simon Fraser University’s Food Systems Lab.

Too Good to Go

Too Good to Go’s app is a location-based service free for download in every Canadian province and in 30 cities across the US from New York to Phoenix. “What users in one community will see differs from what someone 40 miles away in another city will see,” says Sarah Soteroff, senior public relations manager for Too Good to Go Canada and the United States.

The app user finds restaurants, grocery stores, bakeries, and donut shops within their own neighborhoods that, at the end of the day, find themselves with a surplus. The retailer may not want to store the food overnight, and, sometimes, food regulations prevent the reheating of day-old restaurant meals that makes those three leftover slices of pizza unsaleable. 

“It’s based on the surplus of that day and what the store has. It’s unpredictable, so we make it a surprise bag,” says Soteroff. It could, for example, be three dozen donuts divided into four to a bag. Too Good to Go makes $1.99 from the purchase of each bag, and it recommends bags sell for between $3.99 and $9.99. The products in the bag are usually, according to Soteroff, discounted by a third of the original price. 

The app keeps track of how much money the user has saved by buying food destined for the landfill as compared to what it would cost at full price. “Apps like these,” says Soma, “may help restaurants reduce the amount of food that is wasted at the end of the day, especially when people are motivated by cheaper prices.”

The app launched in Denmark in 2016, and it now has 90 million users globally. It has saved American consumers an estimated $127 million on food they otherwise would have bought at full price, and it has earned $41 million for businesses that otherwise would have tossed food away. 

Every time a surprise bag is sold, 2.5 kilograms of Co2 equivalent (Co2e) is diverted from the landfill and atmosphere, with approximately 35 million kg of Co2e diverted in the US. The app personalizes this for the user, by providing a running tally of the CO2e they’ve kept out of the landfill through the purchase of surprise bags and, subsequently, the difference they’ve individually made to global warming. 

Food Rescue US

In 2011, one in seven Connecticut households was experiencing food insecurity, while more than 36 million tons of food was being tossed out across the US. This didn’t make sense to Jeff Schacher, a software developer, and Kevin Mullins, a local pastor, from Fairfax County, Connecticut. They founded Community Plates (now Food Rescue US) and created a model of food rescue that depicts the true meaning of the adage “waste not, want not.”

“We were born out of a problem and a solution,” says James Hart, development director for Food Rescue US.

Businesses agree to donate food, and not-for-profit social service organizations such as shelters, soup kitchens, and food pantries agree to take it. The app’s secret to success is the volunteers who sign up to rescue food and deliver it to the organizations in need. The app gives detailed instructions on where to pick up the food and where to take it. Anyone can sign into the app and claim a food recovery in their area.

For Jenna von Elling, a parent volunteer at Luther Jackson Middle School in Falls Church Virginia, Food Rescue US has made a huge difference to her school community. “At the start of the pandemic, we wondered how we were going to keep the school pantry stocked for families,” she says. After a quick Google search, she discovered Food Rescue US and the pantry has not been without food since.

Twice a week, von Elling and her fellow food rescuers fill two SUVs full of food they claim and recover from the local Target grocery store. What they bring back to the school pantry includes produce that is nearing the end of its grocery store shelf life but is still edible. There are also chicken breasts and other meat nearing best-before dates to boxes of diapers that are damaged. 

Since its founding, the organization has expanded to 23 states, provided 152 million meals to those in need, kept 183 million pounds of excess food out of landfills, and boasts 20,000 volunteer food rescues.

Misfits Market

Misfits tackles food loss at the beginning of its life cycle, including, what Rose Hartley, head of sustainability for Misfits, calls “cosmetically challenged” produce. 

“What we have been hearing from farmers,” she says, “is that they need an outlet to be able to sell this produce.” 

Misfits buys the twisted zucchini, the sunburnt cauliflower, and the pepper that’s grown into a cylinder instead of a bell, and makes the produce available via the app in the form of a food box delivered directly to the user’s doorstep. Subscribers can expect a 30-percent savings compared to food bought at the grocery store.

Sign into the app, anywhere in the contiguous US, and subscribe to a weekly or bi-weekly box, or choose a flex plan to shop as needed. Boxes also contain rejected shelf products—maybe the packaging is crinkled, or the printing of the label is slightly off-center, and, therefore, rejected by the store.

“We are trying to fill that gap that buyers back out of,” says Hartley. “The hope and the dream is that we create a different conception of what good food looks like.”

She admits though that change of this scale could take decades. In the meantime, Misfits continues to recover unwanted food. In 2023, it prevented 26, 444,000 pounds of food from going to waste across the US.

The post On the Ground With Apps Preventing Food Waste appeared first on Modern Farmer.

In a span of less than 10 minutes, no fewer than five people open the doors of the bright yellow community fridge and pantry just outside the Medlock Park neighborhood in Decatur, Georgia. Most come here searching for fresh food and produce, or personal products such as toothpaste or diapers, donated by the community.

“I come here about three times a week,” says Anne. She depends on the food, especially fresh produce, to supplement her diet. “If it wasn’t for this fridge, I definitely wouldn’t get to eat as healthy as I do,” she says. “It’s amazing what people donate.” 

The community fridge, known as ATLFreeFridge, stands in front of North Decatur Presbyterian Church. The goal is to provide free food and help reduce food waste. It’s open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and anybody can take or donate food.

The ATLFreeFridge was one of six installed in 2020 as part of the volunteer initiative Free99Fridge started by former Atlantan and activist Latisha Springer. Her goal was to maintain community fridges and pantries across metro Atlanta to help combat food insecurity and waste. (Springer ran the program until she left Atlanta to pursue other opportunities.) Initially, all of the fridges were a success.

But unlike the fridge at the church, the others depended on local businesses such as coffee shops and breweries for their spaces and electricity. When Springer left the program, the fridge sponsors had to choose whether to keep their fridges or close them down. Only North Decatur Presbyterian Church chose to keep its fridge, renaming it ATLFreeFridge.

Today, volunteers install, clean and monitor the ATLFreeFridge. They donate the food, hygiene products and dry goods, and make sure no food is expired or goes bad. Most of the fresh food comes from the neighboring community, although a team of volunteers coordinate food pickups from local restaurants, farms, and grocery stores that also provide tons of fresh food.

“It was a new idea here when I first heard about it,” says Monique. “It was unusual because it was a mutual aid project instead of a non-profit. It was so smart and done with respect. There were no questions asked whether you were donating or coming for food.”

But neighbors in Medlock Park had a lot of questions early on. They expressed their concerns to the church and volunteer coordinators about things such as sanitation, people lingering at the fridge, and homeless encampments that began popping up. Most reservations, though, were about safety around the neighborhood. Those were exacerbated in 2022 after a man who appeared to be having a mental health crisis threw the contents of the fridge into the street, some at passing cars. 

That’s why, Nancy Gathany, a church member on the ATLFreeFridge executive committee, says the church doubled down to keep the fridge rather than close it. “I’m sure it was stressful for the other commercial businesses [hosting fridges] because they become magnets for unhoused people,” she says. “But it’s hard to ignore the needs of so many people coming to our fridge. It hits you in the face.” 

Co-pastor Rev. David Lewicki held a meeting in October 2022 to address community fears. They’ve since established rules for fridge shoppers, including new boundaries on the campus grounds, although there’s rarely a time without someone loitering around the fridge. The church also now enforces no overnight sleeping, but it still happens off church grounds on occasion. 

North Decatur Presbyterian now provides local resource information, including temporary housing, legal assistance, employment services, and child and pet care, to users and has designated parking spaces to address concerns about traffic.

Perhaps the biggest change is the church now has a dedicated case manager for anyone who needs assistance. He’s available once a week and sees about four clients on average, helping them get health care, housing, and employment. 

“The congregation is very supportive of the case manager,” says Gathany. “We are really trying to get the shoppers past their struggles.” Between August 2023 and March 2024, he had nearly 100 client meetings, Gathany says, and assisted several families get off the streets.

Of course, not all the shoppers at the fridge are homeless. Gathany says the fridge feeds more families who come in cars, but they have so many singles who come on foot, and are down on their luck. The 2020 poverty rate in Dekalb County for children aged 5-17 was 26.6 percent, much higher than the state average of 18.8 percent. That number improved to 18.6 percent in 2022 (the latest numbers available), but it’s still higher than the state average of 16.3 percent. And with poverty comes food insecurity, whether it’s because of lack of money, long waits for SNAP benefits, or a lack of transportation.

And, according to Feeding America, the number of food-insecure children in Dekalb County where the fridge is located hovered around 21 percent in 2022 (the latest numbers available), much higher than the county’s overall rate of 11.2 percent.

“What many don’t realize is that some of these people are coming from the neighborhood,” says Monique. “Sometimes, people are ashamed that they don’t have enough money for food. The fridge is one great place they can go for it.”

Still, some neighbors who support the fridge are still hesitant to do so. “Those who are gathering there are a deterrent to my donating,” says local Kern Thompson. “I can only assume that I’m not the only person who’s cut back donating because of their presence.” The fridge has become a hangout, of sorts, which can be both a good and bad thing when it comes to prospective donations. 

Medlock resident Monica Morgan says that’s one reason she consistently donates. “Every time I’ve been there, there’s such a need,” she explains. “There are people waiting—families—who are just down on their luck. But I’ve never felt uncomfortable dropping off food. All the people seem very grateful.”

Today, nearly four years to the day the fridge was first installed, there is still support for the ATLFreeFridge. 

But it’s not without controversy. During the writing of this piece, on July 9, the fridge was vandalized again. An unknown person cut the electrical wire, destroying the fridge and taking it out of commission for nearly a week until volunteers could find a new one. Gathany says she has no idea who did it or why, but that doesn’t change the demonstrated need.

“The fact that we even need this fridge shows us where our society is failing,” says Gathany. “Everybody is having a hard time, not just the homeless. There’s never going to be anything that 100 percent of the community supports. But the church is doing this because it’s the church’s business.” 

The post This Community Fridge is the Only One Left in Atlanta—and the Need is Growing appeared first on Modern Farmer.

That’s 17 million households experiencing food insecurity in a country that throws out more food than any other country in the world—120 billion pounds every year, equivalent to almost 40 percent of the entire US food supply. That’s 325 pounds of wasted food per person.

In other words, no one in the US should be going hungry. There is plenty of food to go around. It’s just a matter of getting it to hungry people before it gets to the dump to rot and, in the process, produces large quantities of methane that contributes an estimated eight percent to global carbon emissions. 

While we all wait (not holding our breath) for the government to creak into action, a network of community activists has emerged in small towns and huge cities alike to help get food to the people who most need it. Every community has different needs, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution, which makes this highly individualized approach more effective than many of the larger-scale, generic, government-sponsored options out there. 

Seacoast Fridge partners with local farms and food trucks

“A colleague told me about the growth of community fridges that offer free food to anyone who needs it, no questions asked,” says Whitney Blethen, recalling the early months of the pandemic, when it was becoming increasingly clear that people were getting hungrier and resources were getting leaner. “I work in a nonprofit that combats childhood hunger, and I’m married to a chef, so it felt like a natural outgrowth.”

Together with Katie Guay and Dave Vargas, Blethen founded the Seacoast Fridge in Kittery, Maine in 2021. 

“We discovered that the Good Samaritan Food Donation Act protects people operating free fridges, which made us feel like there was no risk and only benefits,” says Blethen. 

They reached out to the local rotary club so that they could “piggyback” on their general liability insurance, which covered a wide range of potential injuries or accidents that could occur when picking up or delivering food. Eventually, they partnered with Red’s Good Vibes, a free mobile food truck and nonprofit based in Portsmouth, N.H., which aligns with their mission and has expanded their reach.

“That has been a game changer,” says Blethen. “They already had a network of farms, and because we all have backgrounds in food safety and liability, we began labeling foods early on with ingredients and use-by dates to prevent any issues.” 

In the beginning, their one fridge would be emptied in about 72 hours. Now, they have plans for 24 fridges this year, with turnovers currently at up to four times per day per fridge. Their mission has grown along with the size of their operation, and it now includes 150 volunteers. They’ve also started food rescue programs with farms and restaurants, where “some farms allow CSA members to add $5 to their order. They use that to fund additional drop-offs for us.”

In addition to the fresh food, Seacoast offers seasonally appropriate pantry items, from sunblock and tick spray to socks and gloves. 

“We also work with our local Land Trust, and they have kids tending gardens,” says Blethen. “All of the food then gets donated to fridges or pantries. It’s great for everyone, including the kids.”

To learn more, donate or find a free fridge in Maine or New Hampshire, follow Seacoast on Instagram at @seacoastfridge. 

Sweet Tooth Community Fridge takes advantage of tax credits to pay farmers

“In Iowa, our legislature is hostile to poor people,” says Monika Owczarski. “With the city doing nothing substantial to fight poverty and our own situation, we knew we had to do something.”

Starting in 2016, Owczarski operated a pop-up food stand near her urban farm, Sweet Tooth Farm, in Des Moines. As soon as she could get authorized, she began accepting food stamps. During the pandemic, Owczarski saw a noticeable increase in need and a decrease in formal support. Then, in 2021, the city changed the rules about farming and Owczarski went from having more than an acre in production to having about three city blocks.

“We were left with one-tenth of the space, which meant we couldn’t produce enough for our restaurant clients and our weekly CSA,” says Owczarski. “Then, a soup kitchen near us got shut down.” That was the last straw for Owczarski. 

She reached out to other nonprofits, farmers and food organizations and began giving out free food to anyone who wanted it, no questions asked, with one fridge. It was the first fridge in the state. And it actually helps Owczarski pay the bills after her CSA and farming model got turned upside down.

“The [Farm to Food Donation Tax Credit] program pays farmers for the food they donate,” she explains, adding that they also get donations from restaurants, caterers and others with an excess of food that might otherwise get tossed in the landfill.

Now, the network has 16 fridges, but it is totally decentralized.

“In the last 30 days alone, we have rescued 200,000 pounds of food that would have otherwise been thrown out,” says Owczarski. “Every neighborhood’s needs are different, with some needing no pork for religious reasons and others needing more of one thing or another just because of the community they’re serving.”

The biggest challenge, says Owczarski, has been the climate. 

“We had to figure out a way to prevent the fridges from shorting out on days that are -40 degrees,” says Owczarski. “We insulate the fridges, build shelters and even have safe fireproof infrared heaters that turn on when the temperature gets below a certain threshold.”

To learn more, donate and find fridges around Des Moines, follow @sweetthoothfarmdscm on Instagram. 

Free Food Fridge looks to the nonprofit world 

Jammella Anderson founded Free Food Fridge Albany during the pandemic.

“Access to fresh foods and produce has been an issue for years in Albany and beyond because of structural racism and redlining,” says Anderson. “The pandemic made that worse for everyone, and people who were managing to get by before but were residing on an income cliff suddenly found themselves without options during the pandemic.”

If someone makes just $10 above the cutoff for receiving SNAP or other income-based benefits, they are out of luck, they explain. That means “a lot of people going hungry,” says Anderson. 

Seeing what was happening in Albany, the part-time doula and yoga instructor went into action, putting out a call to followers on Instagram and snagging a free fridge from Lowe’s and a location for their first fridge on Elm Street in Albany in the process. 

Free Food Fridge has grown considerably since 2020, and by the end of the summer, there will be 21 fridges around Albany. Donations roll in from individuals and farmers. Some contributions are regular, others are one-time only, some are in the form of food and others are in the form of money. 

“Our next phase is officially becoming a nonprofit because we are volunteer run and creating a mobile grocery that can shuttle around Albany, travel to all of our fridge locations and serve as a pop-up at farmers markets and food justice organizations,” says Anderson. 

They are also trying to change the way we discuss food access. 

“You can’t say that a hungry person looks like this or underserved communities look like that,” says Anderson. “We need to change that dialogue because, just like there isn’t one solution to hunger, there isn’t one type of hungry person or underserved community.”

To learn more, donate and find fridges in Albany, follow Free Food Fridge Albany on Instagram. 

RVA Community Fridge for Kids gathers on social media 

“I grew up with community fridges in New Orleans, but that wasn’t really done here,” says RVA Community Fridges founder Taylor Scott. “And I saw SNAP Benefits getting cut in Richmond, and all of these historically redlined areas without access to a grocery store or other resources, and I knew I had to do something.”

The project started small, as a literal overgrowth of tomatoes threatened to take over her apartment during the pandemic. She looked for a community fridge to which to donate her bounty, in the hopes that her fresh-grown produce could help provide fresh produce to underserved areas. 

But Scott couldn’t find any community fridges. She reached out to a neighborhood bakery in Church Hill and it agreed to host a fridge. It went up in January 2021. “As soon as we filled it, it would empty out,” says Scott. “Now, we have 14 fridges, and the entire community is involved. We have more than 300 volunteers helping us buy food and operate, not counting people who just drop stuff off at fridges.”

Scott communicates with the volunteers, farms, caterers and chefs who donate food that might otherwise go to the landfill through the communication platform Discord and the social media groups she has set up. Their fridges and the pantries with household goods attached sometimes empty out in as little as 30 minutes. 

“I love seeing how these fridges are bringing our community together,” says Scott. “Some neighborhoods are in absolute food deserts, and raising awareness among people in Richmond who wouldn’t otherwise realize what has been going on in these neighborhoods, while feeding people and fighting food waste, has been incredible.”

Scott says the group is in the process of applying to be an official nonprofit. To learn more, donate and find a fridge, follow RVA Community Fridges on Instagram. 

The post On the Ground With the Volunteers Running Community Fridges appeared first on Modern Farmer.

Photography by Emma Kazaryan.

In February 2020, Thadeaus Umpster opened his first community fridge—right in front of the building where he lives in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn. Since then, he’s helped many others find fridges and organize donations. He calls it an an anarchist network of community fridges and mutual aid. These fridges address twin problems—hunger and waste—but Thadeaus says they are more than that. They are a place where neighbors get to know each other and community bonds are formed.

The day starts like many—with an almost empty fridge.

Fridge volunteers meet in the Brooklyn Navy yards for a large pick up from the mutual aid organization One Community. Part of the donation is made up of lychees. Lots and lots of lychees.

On the loading dock, volunteers sort and load everything that will fit in their trusty red truck.

After a short drive to the fridge in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bed Stuy, Andrea and her red truck take a break. New volunteers arrive and the unloading begins.

Neighbors stop to help unload and do a bit of shopping.

Fitting everything inside is a special challenge but a fully stocked fridge is a thing of beauty that supports and is supported by this community.

The fridge is stocked. Volunteers have gone home. Thadaeus coordinates the next donation.

Each day, across the country, volunteers like Thadeaus help build community and feed their neighbors through dedicated attention to community fridges. To find out how you can do the same, visit Community Fridges 101.

The post A Day in the Life of a Community Fridge appeared first on Modern Farmer.

The selection has not only introduced Martinez to new ingredients, such as eggplant, but she’s learned to cook with them thanks to her children, who receive free classes through their school. “They make broccoli soup. They like cauliflower,” she says. “You don’t think of kids liking Brussels sprouts and these kids love them now.”

The pantry is just one location in Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County’s network of nearly 300 distribution sites; the 41-year-old organization serves an average of 430,000 people per month who are experiencing food insecurity.

About three years ago, the southern California food bank added something novel to its system: a 40-acre farm. 

At Harvest Solutions Farm in Irvine, fresh produce is grown specifically to be distributed to Second Harvest’s partners such as the school pantry. Since its inception in August 2021, the property has produced more than five million pounds of nutritious food for the surrounding community.

“There is a symbolism in the fact that we are growing [locally] , that we are growing food right here that is going from farm to food bank to table in 48 to 72 hours,” says Second Harvest CEO Claudia Bonilla Keller. “Those that need the most help are getting some of the best food that we could ever hope to procure.”

Most food banks operate by gathering unwanted and donated food and distributing them to food pantries and other programs so the people who need the sustenance are able to access it. But those donations can be tenuous. Recently, inflation and supply chain issues have made it even more difficult to maintain operations—particularly at a level that addresses the rising need. 

Seventeen million US households experienced food insecurity at some point in 2022, according to the US Department of Agriculture, a number that grew as a result of the pandemic. 

Harvest Solutions Farm, which operates on University of California South Coast Research and Extension Center (REC) land, grows various crops throughout the year—from cabbage and broccoli to zucchini and watermelon—that is then harvested and driven two miles to the food bank’s warehouse, allowing the organization to quickly distribute the perishable goods throughout the county. 

It’s a symbiotic relationship. Second Harvest gains access to free land (the organization pays for water use and some equipment), and the soil health of UC’s otherwise unused plots is supported. Because the farm relies primarily on volunteers—an average of 170 per week—there’s also an educational component: The community has the chance to connect with farming and food in a way that shopping at a grocery store can’t offer. “People are losing touch with agriculture,” says Darren Haver, director of the REC system and interim director of South Coast REC. “This partnership allows a lot of volunteers that would have never set foot in an agricultural field to actually experience it and learn about it and have a greater understanding of that.” 

Volunteers, in turn, help make the project economically feasible. “The most innovative thing about it is the produce is affordable to a food bank, to us, because the labor is done by volunteers and that allows us to take [the food] in at prices that are competitive with the state co-op, (under 30 cents per pound on average, on par with the California Association of Food Banks),” says Keller. “It’s a relatively small part of our supply chain in all honesty, but it is one that we 100 percent control.”

The farm also reinforces Second Harvest’s mission to provide dignified access to food and nutritional security, which is not only making sure people like Martinez and her family have consistent access to food but ensuring that the fare is truly healthy. “It’s something that is not only going to feed your family but nourish your family,” says Keller.

Although Harvest Solutions isn’t the first of its kind (other farm-to-food-bank programs exist across the country, including at Seeds of Hope in Los Angeles, South Plains Food Bank in Texas and Golden Harvest Food Bank in Georgia), the scale of the farm is unique. And it’s something those involved think can be replicated elsewhere, particularly with strong partnerships in place.

“The model that we’ve had around the country and almost around the world is that our expired, rejected, quality-impacted foods are made available to food banks at discounted prices or for free and we pat ourselves on the back thinking that we’re addressing waste,” says A.G. Kawamura, the former secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture and chairman of the nonprofit Solutions for Urban Agriculture. Kawamura, a farmer himself, started other, smaller versions of Harvest Solutions and was integral in getting the project up and running. Within a season, he says, efforts like this one can “really attack the problem of hunger head-on and make such a big dent in it immediately.”

This matters to community members such as Martinez, who was homeless with her five kids for about two years. Some of the food banks she visited would give her canned food, for which she didn’t have the ability to open, eat or cook. She would return to the places that had fresh produce.

The family has been settled in an apartment for two years, and the school-based pantry has been incredibly beneficial to her, both for the convenience (it’s accessible year-round) and the quality and variety of the produce. Her kids sometimes walk straight to the kitchen to show her their latest cooking skills. The weekly box also allows her to stretch her budget to other necessities, such as proteins beyond chicken, which is what her budget limited her to before. “This program,” she says, “has helped me tremendously in a lot of ways.”

The post Spotlight On the Community Fridge and Pantry Growing Its Own Produce appeared first on Modern Farmer.

So, you want to get involved in a community fridge, but you’re not sure where to start. You’ve come to the right place.

Finding a fridge

You can search for a fridge in your neighborhood with databases like this one from Freedge. You might have luck finding one near you or a fridge to visit on your next vacation. You can also search for community fridges in your area on platforms such as Instagram, where many groups stay active. And some groups, like in New York, also share maps of their specific city. 

Once you’ve found a fridge at which you’d like to volunteer, the best thing to do, organizers say, is just to show up. “Get to meet the other people who volunteer or the people who use it, and have conversations with them about what they need and what they’re looking for,” says Victoria Jayne, with South Philadelphia Community Fridge. 

Think about what you’re able to offer. Do you have a car? You could help with deliveries of food. Maybe you don’t drive, but you have a spare hour or two every week. One of the most consistently needed jobs is cleaning and maintenance of the fridge. Bring a sponge and paper towels and help out with a few minutes of scrubbing. 

If you don’t have time for regular volunteering, you can still help with the most important part of the community fridge—the food. If you’re doing your grocery shopping, pick up a few extra items to fill the shelves. Do you frequently have work meetings where there are tons of leftovers? Bring them to the fridge. The film and TV industries are notorious for having extra food every day, for instance. Can you connect the organizers to a restaurant or grocery store interested in donating food on a regular basis?

What should you bring?

There are a few things to keep in mind when stocking a free fridge. First, label things, even if it’s just some masking tape or a sharpie. “You’re doing a great thing,” says Julie Haire with Los Angeles Community Fridges. “We love the sentiment, but you also should realize [the food] will be thrown out if it’s not labeled.” Even if you know what that food item is by looking, not everyone will, and they also won’t know when it was made or when it expires. It’s also important to think about how people might be able to eat the food. If it’s in a can or needs to be heated up, that might be OK for some of your neighbors. But unhoused folks are unlikely to have access to cooking utensils. For that reason, Haire says that “grab and go” foods are the best options.

Also, fridges are not your dumping ground for inedible food or ingredients past their prime. A good rule of thumb is to put yourself in the shoes of someone going to the fridge. Would you choose that item? If the answer is no, it’s better saved for the compost bin. 

Starting a fridge

But what if there isn’t a community fridge in your area? You’re in luck. You get to be the person who starts one. 

First, check out if there are fridges in other cities in your state or province. They may be able to help you start a chapter in your city, and you can become a member of their team. Many mutual aid groups are happy to bring on more folks who align with their mission and can help spread the word even further. 

You might even be able to become part of an established group such as Freedge through its fiscal sponsorship. If you want to be a nonprofit to be protected under legislation such as the Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, but the process is onerous for a group your size, you could see if a sponsorship would help. “You find an existing nonprofit that says ‘OK, you’re a part of my nonprofit now,’ and all you have to do is report every year with financial statements,” says Ernst Bertone Oehninger, founder of Freedge. As Oehninger found out, a sponsorship is often a great way for smaller groups to get started while still working together under the same umbrella organization. 

Then, go over the resources. Many established fridge groups have FAQs available online to help you get started. Freedge even shares legal guidelines, to help you figure out everything you need to know when it comes to health and safety, as well as your responsibility when it comes to hosting. 

Choose a location

You will need a fridge, a way to plug it in and a host. For some, this is in front of the apartment building; for others, a community center. Oehninger says location is key. “If you are in a place that is more downtown or has a good supply of food services around, then your work as a volunteer is easier [when it comes to stocking the fridge], but it’s more difficult to clean, because of the high turnover,” he says. Ultimately, though, your fridge needs to be accessible. Think about where it might be best seen from all angles and by people both walking or driving by. 

Organizers tell us they frequently find free refrigerators on Craigslist or Facebook, but they especially like models with a glass door for people to easily see what’s inside.

Curb Appeal

Dress it up. A plain fridge is a sad fridge. Think about the curb appeal of your fridge. You’re likely to get more attention and more community engagement with a fridge that looks appealing. For some groups, such as Los Angeles Community Fridges, that means decorating each fridge in a different design and ensuring fridges can hold community bulletins and notices.

Next, it’s important to think about how the fridge might be exposed to the elements and what that might look like. You can find instructions from many groups on how to build a fridge shelter, which is a relatively simple process but can help protect your fridge in the long run. 

Build a team

Think of the fridge as a community resource that isn’t just about combating waste and hunger, but is a place that can bring a neighborhood together. Ask people to join you. There are many ways volunteers can help: pick and deliveries, stocking, cleaning, coordination, finding new donation partners, social media

Fill it up

Lastly, but most importantly, it’s time to stock the fridge. Donations from individuals are always appreciated, but the best way to keep the fridge regularly stocked is to form agreements with businesses that would otherwise throw away their food. In New York City, there’s a partnership with local Panera Bread locations, which nets the fridges a regular supply of pastries and baked goods. Other groups we spoke with talked about setting up agreements with local or chain grocery stores or restaurants. 

If you’re looking for advice on how to approach a business about a partnership, the team at Los Angeles Community Fridges has sample scripts you can use.

But, ultimately, no matter what you are able to do for a fridge, Jayne says getting involved at any level is a help. “It’s really important to have that volunteer base, where you have a group of people who are really committed, because it is work to keep one running and it does require a community.” 

The post Community Fridges 101 appeared first on Modern Farmer.