Nourishing Our Community Through 2020 with Farm Fresh Foods
At the end of every CSA season, as we prepare the ground for the upcoming winter and take steps towards planning next year’s farm season, our farmers also put a lot of time and consideration into reflecting on the most recent season. Farm managers Bryan and David have gathered a lot of insightful data to share with our members.
Like so many other businesses, organizations, and individuals, the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected our CSA operations. We changed our CSA pickup to be pre-packed and socially-distanced to keep all of our members, and our farmers, safe. While COVID-19 presented many challenges to this farming season, we knew that offering our CSA was too important to well-being to skip this year.
“Being a member has improved my mental health. The CSA pick-ups got us out of our house Thursday evenings; and bringing home the beautiful colorful produce cheered up our entire household,” said one member.
Our CSA grew dramatically this year, pushed forward by the pandemic. Our farmers fed more people than ever before — over 543 on average! This number doesn’t include those who participate in the CSA Partnerships for Health Program, which adds another 60 shares! Our farmers also grew produce for Sisters of the Road and Portland Adventist Community Services this season.
Although we had more total shares this year, we did see the proportion of BIPOC participants and families with children drop. We want to recognize the disproportionate negative impacts of COVID-19 to the BIPOC community, and to larger family households. BIPOC folks and families faced more uncertainty and job loss due to the pandemic and probably did not feel like they were in a position to make a financial commitment to our CSA. Our CSA also filled up faster than ever before (we had to start a waitlist in April) meaning there was less time to plan for a financial commitment. We’re actively thinking about how to mitigate these issues, but one idea is to reserve a number of spots next season for BIPOC and families with children, as well as better outreach to these communities.
“I give a huge amount of credit to Zenger for the wide variety of vegetables my kids and I eat. I don’t take any credit for this, but having a little child or any child ask for kale and collard greens for dinner, or snack on tomatoes, or try out vegetables they are not familiar with is awesome.”
We’re also thinking about other barriers to our CSA. Since we prioritize growing food for our closest neighbors, transportation is especially important. This year, 60% of our CSA members lived locally in the closest three zip codes. Our farmers are even thinking about home delivery to those with disabilities or other accessibility issues.
Overall, our members were happy with the amount and quality of our produce! Even with the pandemic and wildfire smoke, we supplied 10% more to our members than last year. With lots of people staying at home this year, we hope the vegetables proved useful to more home cooking. And with our new second walk-in cooler (thanks to Tito’s Handmade Vodka!) we were able to keep our produce fresher for longer — and fresher produce means high quality, nutritious food for our members.
One member commented: “I don’t think I would have had the motivation to get what we needed from the store. Having food that was in season and extremely fresh brought some levity and joy to our situation. Just smelling the Greek basil made me smile.”
We got so much great feedback from our members about our CSA, and are thrilled that the majority of our members said they’ll be back next year too. Our CSA members provide valuable and consistent support for Zenger Farm’s food justice programs. Thanks for all of your support and resilience, and we’ll keep you posted for next year’s shares!
