Summary
Fresh Stops have the power to transform our industrialized food system. Community centers, churches, schools, mosques, and synagogues have the power to use their locations and volunteer power to counter the threats that heart disease, hypertension, and poverty
pose to communities where vegetables are "luxury items."
But affordable, healthy foods aren't luxury items. Access to health is a human right. That's why, through Fresh Stops, we're transforming our food system from the bottom up, teaching communities with hands-on education that both provides access
to healthy foods, learning how to cook and love veggies, and transforming our relationship with our community and the earth.
Let's say you made less than 24K per year: at the Fresh Stop, you'd only
pay $12 for the share of produce pictured at left. And if you made more, you'd pay anywhere from $20 to $30 for the same share of farm-direct, organic produce. At $30, you still pay less than you would for conventional produce! Farmers love the guaranteed
bulk orders.
If we build a Fresh Stop in every community we would revolutionalize our broken food system and undo the damage that low wages have done to our community health.
But Fresh Stops take a lot of work and a lot of administration.
Grow Your Own Fresh Stop will mentor organizers through the Fresh Stop building process and then give them the online resources crucial to their success.
Based on my experience as a web developer, Grow Your Own Fresh Stop would, conservatively, cost $89,600 to build. But because of my affordable living situation in Quito, Ecuador, the support of my wonderful partner Charity, my willingness to volunteer
my time, and an amazing community of volunteers, we can get it done for just $12,000. That's a bargain.
What Are Fresh Stops?
Fresh Stops are communities that offer shares of beautiful, farm-direct, sustainably-grown
fruits and vegetables to people on an income-based sliding scale. Families who are financially able to, pay more, and low-income families who can't, pay less.
When you come to pick up your Fresh Stop share, participants will invite you to linger over coffee and conversation, recipes and samples, and fun and games. And if you visit our classes,
you can learn with us about how our eating choices affect our health, the health of the earth, and the health of our communities.
The
Fresh Stop model provides communities with the tools to organize themselves to overcome healthy-food access barriers: but it takes a lot of work. As Fresh Stop leaders emerge to bring communities together, they need support to facilitate the process.
Last year alone, organizers in Washington DCs
Columbia Heights and
H Street neighborhoods,
Louisville, and
Indianapolis built four Fresh Stops: with more in the works.
Why re-invent the wheel at every Fresh Stop? Let's get the details out of the way so communities can focus on developing leaders, building relationships with local farmers, and ultimately revolutionizing our food system from the grassroots up.
With each Fresh Stop event, organizers have to deal with setting up web
In partnership with New Roots, the Louisville-based
This site will require maintenance and support over the years.
