Reflections from a Farm Market Volunteer
by Carolyn San Soucie
Note: This blog post was written by Carolyn, a volunteer with Common Good City Farm, about our produce distribution efforts in 2020. Support this important work for the upcoming year by making a gift here.
The coronavirus public health emergency has had excruciatingly detrimental effects on all aspects of society: renters have been evicted from their homes, children have struggled to learn amidst adapting to distanced schooling, and millions of individuals are unemployed and unable to afford necessary costs of living. Few things seem stable, as life feels precarious in almost all ways. However, for a few hundred families in the LeDroit Park neighborhood of Washington, D.C, weekly, fresh produce was a certainty. I worked alongside others to ensure that community members would not go hungry, that a family-run farm could sustain operations, and that the neighborhood was cared for and nourished in a time of extreme isolation and unpredictability.
For over a year, I have volunteered three hours weekly at a small-scale, non-profit, urban farm in my neighborhood. Before the coronavirus pandemic, my work involved pulling weeds, planting crops, and harvesting produce. Most of the food grown was sold at weekly markets and distributed to the community at monthly events. However, early on in the pandemic the need in the community for reliable, nutritious food became dire, and it was clear that our operations at the farm needed to react to the growing crisis. Quickly, the farm’s daily role, and my role as a volunteer, shifted to meet the more immediate issues concerning food insecurity.
Although the farm continued to grow and harvest produce, we recognized our potential as a food distributor to ensure that more community members had access to fresh produce. We pivoted to purchasing pre-packaged boxes of produce from a family-run farm in Pennsylvania whose wholesale business to restaurants dried up because of the pandemic. Partnering with the city to offset some of the costs, we distributed the boxes to hundreds of families weekly, ensuring that community members had continual access to fresh, organic fruits and vegetables at no cost. I continued my weekly farming duties, while gaining additional responsibilities as one of the leaders of the food distribution. I assisted with running the two-hour distribution and oftentimes the set-up and take-down required to make sure everything operated smoothly. Through my newfound role, I had a clearer insight into some of the foremost social issues surrounding the neighborhood and how best to solve the problems to directly improve community members’ lives.
As the needs of the community varied throughout the pandemic, we adapted and adjusted our food distribution to better ensure that the neighborhood was well-served. We started selling supplemental produce at wholesale costs alongside our free distribution for people to use their government food subsidy checks on additional, fresh produce. We hand-delivered boxes to people who were recovering from surgery or feeling sick and could not get to the farm themselves. We connected people with city resources to taxi transportation when buses and trains were not running regularly. We adapted the produce provided to best fit with people’s preferences and familiarity. We followed strict food-safety guidelines and took necessary precautions to ensure that the distribution was safe amidst a public health emergency. With every issue raised, we worked to better our operations and better target our aid.
Working so closely with the community and diligently addressing their concerns, I learned much more about the neighborhood and the struggles that people in it faced daily. M, a breast cancer survivor whose family has lived in LeDroit Park for nearly a century, had her produce delivered weekly when she was not able to walk over to the distribution. Sisters C and J aved weekly about how fresh the produce was and how their diet improved with access to more vegetables. F, whose daughter passed away during the summer, appreciated the excuse to get out of the house and the jovial conversation when it seemed especially difficult to carry on. Each person who came to the food distribution was greeted with compassion and walked away with pounds of nutritious produce to make their week a little easier.
The coronavirus pandemic has left millions of people sicker, poorer, and more in need. The only way we will all survive the tragedy that the pandemic has ensued is together through community-led efforts. To address the acute food-related needs of the community in LeDroit Park, Common Good City Farm reacted creatively and precisely. Myself, other volunteers, and the non-profit staff worked through the existing organization’s structure with local government and area farmers to directly provide aid weekly and at no cost to those who needed it.
