COVID-19 Updates
Last updated: August 20th, 2020
We continue to witness drastic disruptions to the economy and the food supply chain on both a global and local level. Large portions of the food industry including manufacturers, restaurants, schools and institutions have made the decision to close or suspend operations, which has stranded large volumes of nutritious food and created tremendous waste upstream. Simultaneously, the need for basic services continues to skyrocket, and many food pantries have been forced to close or operate at reduced capacity as they try to quickly adapt procedures to maintain the safety of their staff, volunteers and clients.
Our response to the COVID crisis has been two-fold, taking into consideration the biggest impact we can have in the short and long term. Because many of our distribution partners have seen a more than 60% increase in demand for services, our top priority has been to mobilize to get sufficient quantities of perishables to these organizations to meet their needs. This means connecting the dots through a now broken supply chain by providing trucking and logistics support, as well as, packing thousands of boxes of fresh produce weekly for distribution through the USDA's Farms to Families Program. Over the past two and a half months, with the help of our distribution partners, we have delivered over 73,000 boxes (more than 2 million pounds) of nutritious fruits and vegetables to relief agencies serving food-insecure populations.
Second, we have re-engineered our on-farm gleaning operations for this growing season, in order to both protect our staff & volunteers and scale up infrastructure to have the greatest impact. We are anticipating an unprecedented demand in urban areas for food assistance and access to fresh fruits and vegetables for the foreseeable future. Our team of seven apprentices is our primary resource for field gleaning, but we will also continue to host volunteer gleans and produce packing sessions as the season continues. For more information on our volunteer practices this year, visit our Volunteer Page.
Our response to the COVID crisis has been two-fold, taking into consideration the biggest impact we can have in the short and long term. Because many of our distribution partners have seen a more than 60% increase in demand for services, our top priority has been to mobilize to get sufficient quantities of perishables to these organizations to meet their needs. This means connecting the dots through a now broken supply chain by providing trucking and logistics support, as well as, packing thousands of boxes of fresh produce weekly for distribution through the USDA's Farms to Families Program. Over the past two and a half months, with the help of our distribution partners, we have delivered over 73,000 boxes (more than 2 million pounds) of nutritious fruits and vegetables to relief agencies serving food-insecure populations.
Second, we have re-engineered our on-farm gleaning operations for this growing season, in order to both protect our staff & volunteers and scale up infrastructure to have the greatest impact. We are anticipating an unprecedented demand in urban areas for food assistance and access to fresh fruits and vegetables for the foreseeable future. Our team of seven apprentices is our primary resource for field gleaning, but we will also continue to host volunteer gleans and produce packing sessions as the season continues. For more information on our volunteer practices this year, visit our Volunteer Page.
Support our Response Efforts
Every $25 donated provides 160 servings of fresh fruits & vegetables to families in need.
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