Welcoming New Hope

We harvested the last of our winter lettuce this week, making room in the east hoophouse for the new lettuce seedlings.  It was good to smell fresh-turned earth, and wake up the hoeing muscles.  The west hoophouse is still full of kale, collards, and other green things; we've been eating well this winter, and we expect to have kale for market in April. 

 In other exciting news, the Feed Our Hungry Neighbors task force of the Unitarian Universalist Church recently donated two large shares in our CSA to New Hope Family Shelter.  New Hope opened last year to provide emergency housing for families in Bloomington.  At New Hope, families in crisis can stay together, in a safe, homelike space.  Help finding jobs and housing, school support for children, health and nutrition education, and caseworker services are all available to residents.

This connection began when we started asking what it would take to make CSAs accessible to everyone.  We want everyone to have the option of eating fresh, local food--improving health, building the local economy, and enjoying delicious meals together.  Many small farmers are low-income, too, and CSAs help to stabilize our finances.  We'd like to see a community-wide CSA program that offers reduced prices and/or payment plans to low-income households, while protecting farmers' income security.  Many farms could participate, as well as churches and other community groups.  For now, it's almost spring, and our to-do list is long--so we're starting small, and happy to welcome the New Hope household into our membership, along with our other new members.  Welcome!