In the US alone, more than 10% of the population is food insecure, meaning there’s not enough food throughout the year to feed more than 5 million households. The food insecurity rate tends to align with the poverty rate, since food insecurity is generally tied to a lack of financial security, affordable housing, employment, and the incidence of chronic health conditions and lack of healthcare. The poverty rate where the sanctuary is located is more than 16%, and food access is an additional challenge as we are in a food desert, despite being surrounded by farms.

Food access, food justice, and food sovereignty are incredibly important issues to us, and we want to provide as much compassionately grown, plant-based food as possible to anyone who needs it, while also teaching others to grow their own food. In the past few months we’ve given away more than 400 plant starts so people could grow some of their own food, and we are excited to see how much ready-to-eat/cook food we can get out to people in our new free farm stand as well.

Our free farm stand, located at the sanctuary, is stocked with veggies, fruit, and flowers grown on the farm. It’s currently small as this is our first season having it available, but the bounty will only increase throughout the season and next year. Our hope is that anyone in the area who needs food will stop by and take whatever they need.

If you’d like to get involved with the farm stand OR you are looking to pick up some food, drop us a message so we can help out. We look forward to watching this program grow!