According to the Montgomery County Food Council about 100,000 people in our county do not have enough to eat. In a county where the median income is around $100,000 it certainly is hard to imagine that roughly 10% of its citizens are food insecure. If you think this problem only effects other communities guess again! In 2020, our own WUMCO emergency assistance organization provided food services to more than 200 individuals and provided holiday food baskets to hundreds of families totaling more than 500 individuals. Everything was donated by the community. What would these folks in need have done without WUMCO’s help?
Concerned that this vulnerable population does not have access to fresh, nutritious options, locally owned and operated small-scale farms are also getting involved. On April 22, Poolesville Seniors hosted two Ag Reserve leaders Mark Israel and Jennifer Freeman who are at the forefront of that effort. During their presentation they detailed the impactful problem of food insecurity and discussed the innovative ways they and others are attempting to overcome it.
Both Israel and Freeman are professionals who came to farming as a second career. Israel solved urban problems with the US Conference of Mayors. Freeman spent 15 years in international development and microfinance. Forty years ago, Israel started his Query Mill Farm in North Potomac and offers shares in his CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Five years ago, Freeman started her own Peas and Peace Farm in Poolesville.
As they both honed their techniques for success, Israel and Freeman became more acutely aware that the Ag Reserve’s rich bounty was not reaching a certain segment of our population.
The pandemic has only exacerbated the situation. Restaurants were under indoor dining capacity limits and many experienced serious revenue declines or closed their doors permanently. With fewer people dining out, farmers also felt the economic pinch. Another factor in this vicious cycle was a Covid related seed shortage. Farmers found themselves competing for seeds with everyone planting their own gardens. Seeds became scarce and expensive.
None of this conundrum was lost on Freeman. During Covid she became a food assistance volunteer for the Upcounty Consolidation Hub at the Black Rock Center for the Arts. After noticing that empathetic farm patrons were making contributions to help the cause, she had lengthy discussions with farm friends to find sustainable solutions.
From this vantage point Freeman started piecing together the puzzle of farming and food insecurity. In 2020 she devised a formal plan, Community FarmShare, that links donors to CSA farmers who provide fresh food to those without access to it.
This local nonprofit has almost achieved its first-year goal of securing a maximum number of donated CSA shares to support both farmers and food banks. These shares, ensure folks in need will receive weekly bags of various fresh items during the Spring to Fall growing season, about 24 weeks. There are still a few more weeks left to donate toward this year’s plan. Seven farms throughout Montgomery County, participate in the program, including Israel’s CSA. WUMCO Help clients are currently receiving about one third of the purchased shares. If you would like to learn more about how to support Community FarmShare, visit here: https://www.communityfarmshare.org
Community FarmShare also promotes the Sustainable Barnesville initiative Grow an Extra Row. Participants are asked to plant an extra row of crops when planning their own gardens. The yield from the extra row is pledged to WUMCO Help’s recipients. Locals Farm Market in Poolesville, another Community FarmShare participant, is helping to nurture this project. They have installed a cold storage shed on their property. Once the extra rows are picked Local’s will store these and any other fresh perishable offerings in their refrigerated cold shed. Donated items should be placed in the reserved section of the shed during Local’s weekend 9 am to 2 pm hours of operation. These items will be delivered to WUMCO Help on Mondays.
Freeman has ambitious plans down the road hoping to match as many people as possible with the backyard bounty of the Ag Reserve and beyond. In case you missed our April 22 presentation on Food and Farming by passionate enthusiasts Freeman and Israel, you can view it here: https://poolesvilleseniors.org/event/food-and-farming/