Health and Nutrition

Organic Vegetable CSA Program

Groundwork understands that many neighborhoods are poorly designed, and subsequent economic decisions often make things worse. In Yonkers, design and economy has resulted in a neighborhood without a supermarket. With no place to buy high quality food within walking distance, chronic health problems related to poor nutrition -- like obesity, diabetes and heart disease -- are epidemic.

To counter these problems, Groundwork created a program to sell fresh, organic vegetables close to where people live.

This "Community-Supported Agriculture" (CSA) program receives vegetables straight from a farmer, and sells them via a subscription program, to local residents. Unlike most CSA programs in more affluent neighborhoods, Groundwork's CSA invites participants to pay with food stamps, and offers significant subsidies to participants based on income.

The pickup site for the CSA is in easy walking distance of Cottage Gardens, which is the first time fresh produce has been available in this neighborhood in decades. Groundwork switched farmers in 2007 to the Sisters Hill Farm. A not-for-profit farm owned and managed by the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent De Paul of New York, the farm's mission is "to grow healthy food which nurtures bodies, spirits, communities and the earth."

The idea for the CSA came out of a neighborhood design charrette with the Cottage Gardens Tenants' Council. Groundwork wrote a grant to, and received funding from, the federal Community Food and Nutrition Program (CFNP). When CFNP was cut from the federal budget in 2006, Groundwork received emergency funding from the Baron Tikkun Olam Charitable Trust.

The CSA's neighborhood vegetable pickup table (see photo top right) is staffed by teens from H.O.P.E. with support from the Westchester Community Foundation. For more information on the Groundwork CSA, click the links below:

Click here for Journal News article on Groundwork's CSA.

Click here for Sisters Hill Farm website.

Wikipedia: What is Community-supported Agriculture (CSA)?