At SFC, we strive to help our local communities overcome some of the barriers they face to accessing healthy foods. Healthy food access is a huge issue for many people in our local community as well as our larger society as a whole today. It is a very real issue of hunger and nutrition.

One of our programs that works in healthy food access is our Farm to Family program, which offers farm fresh produce at very reasonable cost to families at local Elementary schools and community areas at what we call Community Farm Stands. Identical to a farmers’ market booth, families and area neighbors can purchase from a variety of produce when kids are getting out of school, and in the typical hours of traveling from work to home. These Farm Stands accept SNAP benefits and offer the Double Dollar Incentive Program. We are working to create more of these Community Farm Stands and we’re very excited about connecting neighborhoods that have these needs with a farmer to provide produce and for the community to determine how and when they want their Farm Stands to operate for them.

Farm to Family has also provided the option to pre-purchase baskets of produce to an area school for parents and school staff on a weekly basis from a local farm, also accepting SNAP and DDIP. Additionally, Farm to Family is the program that has helped facilitate Ortega Elementary’s recent Citrus Fundraiser, where students sold bags of organic oranges to raise funds for their school – and a second year of huge success and fun was found in that.

We hope to keep expanding our Farm to Family program into more schools and communities. Thanks to you for recognition and support of our Food Access work here at SFC!