Feed Families in Appalachian Ohio

Summer has settled into Southeast Ohio, and we're working hard to keep our team cool and community gardens watered! It has been a while since we've sent an update, and I'm excited to share about all of the great work made possible through your support over the past few months.

All of CFI's core programs are growing. As we build on the successes shared in our 2023 Annual Report and move into the peak of the 2024 growing season, we're excited to share that we have:

• Added over a dozen beds to our community gardens to accommodate interest from community members in growing their own food.

• Shared over 80,000 lbs of potatoes, 5,000 plants, and 6,000 packets of seeds for free to individuals, families, and organizations. 

• Completed a series of spring farm field trips for over 200 first-grade students in three local schools and also offered our first-ever Sprouts School Garden Summer Camp program that engaged 23 young campers and peer mentors to learn about gardening and sustainable agriculture with hands-on outdoor lessons from 8 local farmers. 

• Responded to a large number of inquiries from healthcare and social service organizations interested in offering Discovery Kitchen workshops and our new DK Cookbook to their patients and clients.

• Run three weekly Veggie Van markets for all community members, as well as organized a series of pop-up market and workshop events specifically focused on serving seniors in our area.

• Continued our ongoing partnership with local collaborators Rural Action and the Southeast Ohio Food Bank that empowers the CFI Donation Station to work with an extended network of farmers markets and food pantries in Athens and Washington counties and beyond. This partnership has supported CFI in delivering 1,380 pounds of extra produce since April in addition to our ongoing weekly Donation Station distributions. In all, we've distributed about 10,000 lbs of food to 33 partner agencies so far in 2024, directly increasing access to fresh, healthy, local food for thousands of people in our region. 

The numbers are important because the scope of the need in our area continues to be large, but what keeps us going are the individual interactions and remembering that the hours of planning, miles of driving, and boxes full of food lifted and sorted become nourishing meals, new friendships, a stronger sense of connection to the land and to neighbors, and lifelong commitment to supporting sustinable farms.

At a recent community garden club meeting, a volunteer asked some young participants what they wanted to be when they grew up, and two of them answered--with great enthusiasm--"Gardeners!"

Here's to growing more gardens, more gardeners, more relationships...one seed, one plant, one meal, one table full of fresh veggies at a time. Thank you for sticking with us through the long, joyful journey toward a resilient and sustainable region where everyone is nourished by a just, inclusive, and thriving local food system

Links:

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