My husband and I work with a non-profit community development organization. He and I co-direct a team of people who run programs for children and youth. But our entire family, and some friends volunteer with a non-profit partner called Fair Foods Inc. that does food rescue, and we host a produce redistribution site on our street.
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| This is some corn from Fair Foods we grilled up and made into corn and black bean salsa with some neighborhood junior highers. |
Fair Foods has had a relationship with the Chelsea Market distribution center for produce in New England for over twenty years. Every day they go and personally meet with vendors and pick up produce that grocery stores do not take and that they would have to pay to dispose of. This is usually whole palates of fresh fruits and veggies!! They are often left because grocery stores may not need to restock, or because they are unevenly ripened and grocery stores can not sell them or it would take too much time to sort them out. Fair foods takes this rescued produce and sells it at various neighborhood market sites at $2 for a mixed bag of produce. Last time we checked the grocery store equivalent price for our produce was between $25-$28 a bag. The $2 from each bag sold goes to help fuel the truck so they can go to the market every day.
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| My youngest son standing next to our display of what comes in the bag for theweek |
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| This is my husband and middle son making bags |
In our community development work we know that our neighbors in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston need affordable fresh produce, and our friends at Fair Foods allow us to tag along once a week with our little pick up truck and then run a site on our street in the afternoon in front of the children’s park. We really try to run it like a neighborhood party. We do food sampling, have information about upcoming community events, and sometimes do cooking demonstrations with some of the more interesting fruits and veggies. We sell 40-55 bags in two hours.
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| This is our site |
I love cooking and eating, and I love teaching others how to prepare and enjoy healthy food. At the same time we are helping to rescue thousands of pounds of produce that would have gone to waste. So much energy and labor to grow it, we want to get it to people who really can use it and enjoy it. It is also very special to serve alongside my husband and my boys. It is important to me that they learn how to love others through how the live their lives.
Thanks!
Sarah Riddle
