By Cheryl Splain, KnoxPages.com reporter
MOUNT VERNON — If a Wednesday discussion bears fruit, clients of local food pantries may have expanded access to fresh vegetables and produce. Representatives of Interchurch Social Services and The Salvation Army are working on a proposal to buy surplus produce from Benji Ballmer’s Yellowbird Foodshed CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).
“We’re just starting to talk about that for the United Way grant for 2016,” said Joy Harris, executive director of ISS. “Mr. Ballmer has a place at the old Loma Linda plant and he has already been working with some of our local farmers and farmers in other central Ohio communities.
“Our families that use the pantries, one thing that the pantries do not often have are fresh fruits and vegetables. And if you try to buy those things in the stores they are quite costly. If we can provide those things to our families it would mean better nutrition and overall better health for them,” Harris continued. “Currently we get produce from Mid-Ohio Produce the first Thursday of the month. That early in the month is when we are the least busy, so we would really like to have fresh things available later in the month.”
In a traditional CSA arrangement, consumers pay a set amount up front to a farmer, and then each week receive a box filled with seven to 10 vegetables.
“This would not really be considered a CSA, it would be more like he would send us a list of what he has available or an abundance of and then we would see what fits our needs. We would have a monthly budget to work with,” explained Harris.
Ballmer said the proposed relationship between the food pantries and his CSA fits like a hand in a glove.
“[Interchurch Social Services] and The Salvation Army have the infrastructure built already with kitchens and distribution to however many people they touch every week. So it is just a matter of having it accessible,” he said. “Everyone deserves equal access. If there is a place where good, whole produce and eggs, or whatever it happens to be, is not reaching somebody because it is a food dessert and they don’t have access to it because there is no grocery store or whether they do not have the financial means, it does not mean those people should not be eating that food.
“I do not want to invent a system, I just want to plug in because all I am doing is sourcing food,” he continued. “So how do I get that food to those people who need that food the most? I go through a system that is already in place and working well.”
Yellowbird Foodshed is a little different than most CSAs. Ballmer buys food from about 20 farms, including several Knox County farms, packages the food into CSA boxes and takes the boxes to consumers in the Columbus metropolitan area.
“I am trying to be the go-between, the marketing, the sales guy for the farms because they often do not have the time to be that for themselves. Getting local farm products from the field to the marketplace is a challenge; we kind of step in and do a little bit of all that. That is the role Yellowbird plays in helping get the product to final market,” he explained. “Yellowbird is a multi-farm CSA. It mitigates the risk for the farmer because if he has a bad year then the people who are buying his CSA have a bad year. In this case, we have a bunch of growers and we put it all together; it brings more of a variety of products to the boxes as well. People in Columbus who buy our CSA are getting [food from] upward of 20 different [farms]; it just depends on whose products we bought that week.”
Ballmer moved to Knox County last year because he could be in a “good grower sector” yet still be within an hour of a major metropolitan area. His facility at the former Loma Linda plant has coolers and freezers to store food. Surplus food is processed into salsa or spaghetti sauce or frozen until another use can be found for it.
“If there’s a way we can plug it into a system that is in need of it, we will, even if it is at a discounted price,” said Ballmer. “Something that a week ago fresh cost $4 and is now worth $2, if I sell it to Joy at $1.50 it may be less than I could get somewhere else, but it is a guaranteed outlet and she has the [clients] who need it. I think it is going to be a good relationship.”
The CSA concept originated in the 1960s; in Japan from the consumer standpoint and Switzerland and Holland from the farmer’s viewpoint. The concept was brought to the United States in the mid-1980s.
“For the farmer, you have the income coming in earlier in the season. In any sort of agriculture, the costs are up front; a CSA keeps the financial end going and gives money to buy seed and equipment,” said Dan Scholl, who runs Veggies & Eggs CSA on Hard Road near Centerburg. “A lot of people do not have time, they do not have space, maybe they do not feel confident about growing things. The benefit for the consumer is that they have a box of fresh vegetables each week, even though it is a little different from going to the grocery store and selecting what you want because it’s all seasonal.
“The added benefit to that is it helps people broaden their horizons; it has definitely broadened ours,” he continued. “I have grown some vegetables that I have never grown before. It really broadens your horizons as far as all the different vegetables out there, different ways of cooking them and different dishes you can do.”
According to 2013 numbers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a low-cost food plan that meets nutritional requirements costs $191 a week retail for a family of four; 40 percent, or $76.40, goes toward fruits and vegetables. Organic vegetables bought retail cost more. CSA shares in the Mount Vernon area vary based on the number of weeks, produce offered and whether the CSA is certified organic, but run between $20 and $43 a week for a family of four.
“I think the customer is getting a lot more value because if you go to the grocery store and try to buy all those organic vegetables that you will find in a CSA box, I would doubt you are going to be able to do that,” said Scholl, whose CSA is not certified organic but operated in accordance with organic guidelines. “I would also point out that what our customers are getting is very fresh, picked the day before or that very day itself. Any organic vegetable [from the store] is probably coming from California, Mexico or Florida; they travel for several days to get here so they are already losing their nutrition.”
Today, Saturday, is National CSA Sign-up Day. For a listing of CSAs in the Mount Vernon area, visit http://www.localharvest.org/.
