Farmers’ Market Food Recovery

A personal update: I recently began working with a local non-profit called Farmer Foodshare. It’s a neat organization that redistributes farmers’ market excess to those in need while supporting small farmers.

Here’s how it works: Market shoppers donate money (or food). We use that money to buy from farmers. At the end of the market, farmers give us what they won’t be able to sell. We channel both the purchased and donated food to local soup kitchens.

I’m managing the Farmer Foodshare’s Donation Stations, which are set up at farmers’ markets all around the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area. As part of that, I’m getting to know more and more local farmers and the people tied to local food. So far, so great.

It’s amazing to witness such generosity–from farmers and shoppers alike. Yet it does yield one question: What happens to the excess food at your farmers’ market??