Last year, in partnership with Seeds That Feed, we were able to collect over 17,000 lbs of fresh produce donated by local farmers and gardeners.. After the farm fresh produce is collected, it is weighed, sorted and prepared for pick-up. Gleaned produce is distributed among local non-profits and churches that serve community meals or have pantries.

This year we are trying some new things to become more efficient in transportation and distribution of the produce. We are excited to be able to use our Community Food Hub, literally as a ‘hub,’ to during the washing, weighing and sorting of the produce. We are also becoming greener gleaners by reducing the amount of plastic bags used during the process.

It is our hope that our community will help support our farmers by purchasing more produce, both for your own consumption and for hunger relief efforts.If you would like to donate produce from your own home garden or produce purchased at the market, you can find our table by the Market Manager’s booth. We would love a visit from you! Together we can cultivate community food security!~

During their time volunteering, we were able to build rain barrels, straw bale gardens and potato bins, as well as plant veggies, paint walls and give the Food Hub the TLC it has been needing.  If we learned anything about Sam’s Club Fresh Directors, it is that they don’t kid around when it comes to hard work.  We were amazed when they completed almost all of our planned projects in the first hour that they were there.

Amazingly, their positive attitudes, encouraging cheers and dedication did not wane as the workday went on. Unfortunately, this did not hold true for our sand, mulch and compost supply.  By 4pm, we were about a truckload worth of soil away from eight finished straw bale gardens, with no soil in sight. Unbeknownst to us, our power team of volunteers began to pass around a hat, all chipping in to buy the soil needed to finish the job.  We were so overwhelmed by their generosity and kindness and can honestly say that we would not have been able to do it without them.

This spring and summer, we look forward to spending time in our straw bale gardens, which we lovingly refer to as our ‘guerilla gardens.’  Because we are still establishing a master plan for building renovations and landscaping, straw bale gardens allow us a significant amount of space to grow food, with flexibility for future building.  Feed Fayetteville dreams of the day when we will be growing edibles on every available square foot of space at the Food Hub.

For now, we continue to be thankful for the hard work and dedication of passionate community members and people like the Sam’s Club volunteers who help us in our mission of alleviating hunger and creating community food security by cultivating a sustainable local food system.  Thank you Sam’s for helping to Feed Fayetteville!

A contributor to the BDJ is Acadia Roher is the author of this article for BDJ. She is a solutionary living and working in Little Rock and offers these reflections on the conference, highlighting the work of Malik Yakani and the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network.

The annual SSAWG (Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group) conference took place last weekend in Little Rock, Arkansas. A full three days of lectures, discussions, and dialog, the conference aims to “empower and inspire farmers, individuals, and communities in the South to create an agricultural system that is ecologically sound, economically viable, socially just, and humane.”

As a supporter of the Good Food Movement, but not a farmer, I found SSAWG to be welcoming, energetic, and diverse. While I soaked in a few details about soil science and post-harvest handling from my excited farmer friends between sessions, most of my attention during the conference was focused on learning about community food system infrastructure and anti-oppression work within the movement.

Malik Yakini from the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network stood out for his fearless challenge to the conference attendees. He used his powerful presence to impress upon an early Saturday morning crowd the message that growing food sustainably is not enough. Those engaged in the Good Food movement must simultaneously seek to end oppression of all kinds, especially white supremacy, if we are to move toward justice. I was so stirred by his plenary address that I made it a point to attend his later session on dismantling racism in the movement.

Though the content of “Combating the Myth of White Supremacy” was fascinating, it was the engaging style in which Mr. Yakini ran the session that stood out most.

Read the full article here.

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Boiled Down Juice

The Boiled Down Juice (BDJ) has agreed to share some of their insights into food culture, food issues, community based research and Arkansas solutions to food insecurity. Boiled Down Juice has been a presence in the Arkansas online community for a number of years.

The Boiled Down Juice has provided readers with access to emerging research in food ways, as well as opportunities to participate in creating food secure communities and documenting those experiences.

Thanks to Boiled Down Juice’s Meredith Martin Moats for the opportunity to share their online magazine with the Feed Fayetteville blog. You will see periodic posts from BDJ on the Feed Fayetteville blog in the future so keep your eyes open.

Here is, in their own words, what the Boiled Down Juice is all about:

The Boiled Down Juice is gathering space for budding conversations at the intersection of community-based traditions and holistic, democratic, place-based community action. We’re based in Arkansas, but are growing to cover topics in the greater south and beyond. We aim to discuss big ideas with humble approaches.

Thrown into the mix you’ll find posts about music, food, growing things and ideas, participatory research, what it means to call a place home, and the diverse ways humans express the art of daily life and engage in creative living.

To read more go here.

To connect with Boiled Down Juice on Facebook go here.

In 2013 we hope to begin renovation of this former church into an energy-efficient community food resource center that will house Feed Fayetteville, Edible Ozarkansas, and our community program partners. This space will facilitate a dynamic, sustainable food systems aggregation area wherein formal and informal food-based programs can share materials, create a community kitchen for food preparation, preservation and cooking classes, create a community meeting and garden education space both indoors and outdoors, and most importantly create efficiencies in our efforts by collaborating on mutual projects and being a central location accessible to all citizens. This building is located at 221 S Locust. Stay tuned for updates on this incredible project! Special thanks to all those involved in this project, especially Park Co Architects.

View from the parking lot at 221 S Locust, eventually this parking lot will be food production space.

Organizations spend a lot of time identifying what it is they need, to best serve the communities they are working with. Food security organizations, our local pantries, and other food organizations meet a consistent need throughout the year. They need reliable donation streams of high quality food. We can help create pantries stocked with great nutrient dense food!

I love how organized holiday giving drives are. There are lists of needs, convenient drop offs and well publicized donation requests. Inspired by that, knowing that the holiday season is over and that organizations are now working twice as hard to get donations, here is how to make your donations count.

1.  Address a specific need for the organization

• almost every food bank/pantry and similar have a needs list that help you shop for the best donations to meet the need for their community

7Hills: http://7hillscenter.org/2012/12/december-needs-list/

NWA Food Bank: http://www.nwafoodbank.org/#!Food%20Drives/coxe

Fayetteville Public School Outback: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fayetteville-Public-Schools-Outback/120028658054889 (post needs as they come up)

Apple Seeds: http://www.appleseedsinc.org/donate/

2. If there is no needs list on the website but you want to see what they need or if the donation you have is useful call or email.

• Sometimes an organization needs to tell you no. I recently listened to a radio story on how donations that weren’t needed sometimes got in the way of processing highly needed donations.

3. What not to donate.

• Don’t donate dented, unsealed, opened boxes or bags, or expired food
• Don’t donate the cheapest food you find just because you can buy it in bulk.

100 packages of ramen are not better than 5 jars of peanut butter.

• Don’t buy green beans or creamed corn.

-I have seen multiple local needs lists and they have requested that no green or creamed corn be donated

4. Don’t buy food, if you have money to donate.

• Most pantries run programs, like backpack programs and need a certain type of food, at certain times, in specific quantities. You can always designate your donation dollars for what matters most to you.

5. You may have something to offer you hadn’t thought of before

• A lot of people that need emergency food assistance don’t have heat or refrigeration.
• That doesn’t mean you should buy a box of Twinkies because they can be served room temperature!
• Consider contributing your slow cooker, can opener, hot plate or other basic food prep item.