Community Farm partnership delivers fresh produce to families

MANKATO, Minn. (KEYC) -The Living Earth Center partners with Feeding our Community Partners (FOCP) in Mankato to deliver fresh produce to families.

Thursday, fresh organic produce grown at the Blue Earth County Community Farm was delivered to Feeding Our Community Partners for distribution in their monthly Summer Pack Food Program boxes.

“They actually plant for us and we give them specifics that we know that the kiddos and families really like and are able to cook with,” said FOCP Program Manager, Jessica Tilson.

Produce included a mixture of tomatoes, potatoes, squash, cabbage, eggplant, and other vegetables.

“Freshly grown organic produce is quite expensive, it’s one of the most expensive things you can buy. So we are really excited that we can provide that connection and provide that healthy food to families,” said The Living Earth Center Executive Director, Laura Peterson.

“This way we can provide those food insecure youth with not only the kid-friendly shelf-stable food that we traditionally provide, but we also get to provide those fresh produce items for them,” said Tilson.

Living Earth Center took over management of the Community farm this spring.

“It’s been our first year of establishing how this whole partnership and collaboration works out with a number of partners in our community it’s not just Feeding Our Community Partners and it’s been great to see everything grow but the other really neat thing about is we’ve been able to have volunteers from the community, without them we wouldn’t have been able to grow the produce or the relationships which I think is so important,” said Peterson.

In addition, the farm says they are in need of volunteers for the rest of the harvest season.