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Community Outreach
FoodShare
Our FoodShare Challenge Event raised 1736 lbs. of food in one morning. The Farmer FoodShare has now raised 14,364 pounds donated and counting since it began! FoodShare Challenge also takes cash donations in every market, which they use to purchase food. The donation station is located next to the gazebo and across from the information booth. The Farmer FoodShare program continues to collect fresh food at every market year-round.
About Farmer FoodShare Donations
The Carrboro Farmers Market Farmer FoodShare program is a volunteer and farmer-led program that collects delicious, fresh market fruit and vegetables from farmers and shoppers and distributes it to a network of social services agencies in local underserved communities.
Volunteers collect and distribute food at the end of each market. Shoppers can make tax-deductible donations of groceries through the “Buy One, Give One” program.
Through the generous weekly donations, the Farmer FoodShare collects and distributes one to two tons per month of market-fresh food to senior centers, community kitchens, drug recovery centers and food banks.
The program combats food insecurity and ensures that nothing goes to waste, while raising awareness that a sustainable local food economy must include every member of our community. The Farmer FoodShare was recently covered in the News & Observer: http://www.newsobserver.com/2766/story/1620166.html.
IFC Food donation pictures by John Whitehead can be found at http://gallery.mac.com/jfwhitehead#100046&bgcolor=black&view=mosaic&sel=0.
The program is uniquely effective and fun to participate in for all ages. If you are interested volunteering, contributing or in learning how to start a Farmer FoodShare in your own community, please contact Sarah Blacklin at info@carrborofarmersmarket.com.
FoodShare Program 2009!
Thank you to everyone who supported the Carrboro Farmers' Market Farmer FoodShare program in 2009. Through your time and generous cash and food donations, we raised over seven tons of food to feed the hungry in Orange, Durham, Wake and Chatham Counties!
Here are the year end results:
14,364 pounds were collected, or over seven tons of fresh food. Of this, shoppers donated $2,537 in cash to purchase food. The program started in late May and ran at every Saturday and mid-week market through the end of the year, rain or shine! Farmers and shoppers donated an average of 266 lbs per market, which worked out to an average of 2,052 lbs per month. The highest donation weekend was the Farmer FoodShare Challenge, where we raised 1736 pounds of food in one morning.
According to the USDA's annual report on food insecurity, 1 in 7 families in the U.S. experienced food insecurity in 2008. That means that almost everyone has encountered someone who has experienced food insecurity. There is much more work to be done at many levels to eliminate food insecurity in our community and to increase access to fresh, locally-grown food for everyone. Farmer FoodShare, in partnership with local groups like the Inter-Faith Council for Social Services' FoodFirst initiative, the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle and many others will be working to address these challenges and opportunities in 2010. We will also continue to grow the FoodShare program at the Carrboro Farmers' Market and hope to start similar programs at other interested markets. Please visit us at the market or contact Margaret Gifford at mgw@well.com or 967-6464 if you are interested in volunteering or donating.
The Farmer FoodShare program continues to collect fresh food at every market year-round. To read more about the FoodShare program, click here. For pictures of the event, click here.
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