New Farm Share Program Feeds Families in Need

The cost of everything these days keeps going up, from filling your tank to buying groceries, especially if you want to buy locally grown food.

You may have heard of CSAs or “Community Supported Agriculture” shares. They’re prepaid subscriptions for a farm’s produce for the season.

Though they can be costly, a new program breaks down the cost for low-income families wanting to make better health choices.

It’s called the “Central Oregon Farm Share Program,” kick-started by the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council. It wants to help change that by providing local low-income families access to local food.

Susie Hart and her farm, “Harvest Of Hope” in Tumalo, is one of the participating share providers in this year’s program. A nurse practitioner by day, she grows produce specifically for low-income families, because she says everyone deserves to eat nutritiously.

“If you don’t have the foundation that is good and nutritious food, that is not full of pesticides and herbicides, then you’re not going to be healthy,” Hart said Thursday.

Most CSA shares vary from farm to farm and include fresh seasonal produce every week in the summer and at peak harvest.

In Hart’s harvest, she plans of providing an array of vegetables and eggs, too.

For the next three years, the program will help low-income families and individuals purchase CSA shares by offering a 50 percent subsidy.

Next year, the number of beneficiaries goes up to 30, then 40 the year after.

Those that use an Oregon Trail Card can use it to pay for the remaining amount.

“I have people call me and they are on such a low -ncome budget that it touches my heart to hear people say, ‘I have $13,000 a year and I want to be able to give my kids some fresh local food that they wouldn’t be able to otherwise get,” said Katrina Van Dis, program director for COIC.

“Or maybe they lost their job and they were used to cooking and buying in a certain way, and now they don’t have access to that,” said Van Dis. “So they’re providing their kids with something they otherwise wouldn’t get.”

It’s a choice organizers of the program say helps keep the local sustainability cycle going.

For more information visit http://www.coic.org/cd/agriculture.html or contact Katrina Van Dis at 541-504-3307 or kvandis@coic.org