Fresh Food Connect Is Helping Gardeners Reduce Hunger in Their Communities
Many gardeners around the country have a bounty of excess food. And many food pantries across the U.S. have been working overtime during the past year, when the pandemic sent demand soaring. Yet there was not a defined way to directly connect the two until a program called Fresh Food Connect came along.
It all started as a pilot project in Denver in 2016 as a collaboration between three local organizations: Denver Food Rescue, Groundwork Denver and Denver Urban Gardens. “We were looking for untapped resources to reduce food waste and also increase access to healthy, fresh food,” shares Laura Lavid, product and operations director for Fresh Food Connect. When they asked if gardeners had an avenue to participate in hunger relief, would they? The answer was a resounding yes.
In the initial phase, Fresh Food Connect was a web application through which gardeners could log on when they had extra produce, enter their zip codes and be connected to local hunger relief operators who’d pick up the produce and distribute it. The idea was to be the logistical arm to handle the actual pickup and delivery, further encouraging growers to donate what they couldn’t use.
“We wanted to let gardeners know that there are people in their communities experiencing food insecurity, and there is an easy way for them to donate,” Lavid says.
As more families started growing food during the pandemic, they realized how much could come from even a small garden. “A lot of people giving a little can aggregate to a lot,” Lavid says. A big part of the organization’s mission is making sure growers of any size know that they’re welcome to share extra produce, whether that takes the form of 20 pounds of tomatoes or a couple of zucchini.
Lavid says that in 2020, they experienced an immense increase in need in a short period of time. Fresh Food Connect’s operators were tripling or quadrupling the number of people they were serving nearly overnight. As a result, the web app transitioned to a mobile app and expanded across the country, simultaneously tripling its usage among growers. Currently, the organization is working with 35 operators and hopes to have at least 50 on board by June.
Denver Food Rescue, one of the founding partners, is among the champions for growing Fresh Food Connect. “The national team is amazing to work with — super responsive, community-focused and wants to make Fresh Food Connect work for the operator,” shares Amy Moore-Shipley, the organization’s director of strategy and communications. “[The organization’s] work last summer on getting the word out increased our gardener numbers by almost double, and we were able to start a second distribution with all of the extra food.” She adds that Fresh Food Connect has streamlined a process for which no other infrastructure really existed before, which makes it a win for all involved.
According to the latest report from Feeding America, more than 42 million people may experience food insecurity (the lack of access to sufficient food because of limited financial resources) at some point in 2021. That’s up from pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, the food insecurity rate was the lowest it had been in 20 years, yet still, more than 35 million people in the United States were food insecure.
See more: Pandemic Partnerships: Coloradans Serve Their Communities With Fresh, Local Food
If you’re a grower who wants to get involved with Fresh Food Connect to help bring that number down, you can download the app and input your zip code. If there’s already an operator in your area, you can connect with him or her directly to set up a drop-off or pickup of produce. If not, the app will send a notification to the Fresh Food Connect team to alert them of interest in your area.
Lavid says that when they conducted a survey of gardeners working with Fresh Food Connect last year, they learned 89% of them had never donated to a food pantry previously. “These are folks who care about food and are growing their own — they just don’t know what hunger looks like in their local community,” she adds. That’s why they’re encouraging operators to engage their gardeners in their work, inviting them to be volunteers and advocate for what hunger looks like.
In 2020, Fresh Food Connect donated about 20,000 pounds of fresh produce to those in need. However, the difference they’re making is bigger than numbers.
“Poundage is always talked about,” says Lavid, “but in our eyes, a more engaged community [means] we can take better care of ourselves. We’re looking at how to quantify that piece, because that tells more of our story.”