The refrigerated truck carrying vegetables and fruits starts rolling into local communities beginning on June 7.
Last year, Farm 2 Fork, a nonprofit, signed up about 50 members who purchased a box of fresh farm products each week at Dorothy Lane Market locations in Oakwood, Centerville and Springboro, said Howard Solganik, the organization’s executive director.
Customers paid a $35 membership fee and then spent $25 per week to order a box of fruits and vegetables, which they picked up at the markets.
Those locations are still available in addition to the five new pick-up sites. The farm stands, a new addition, will allow nonmembers to buy all sorts of produce.
Solganik said the sustainable agriculture program relies on local growers and small farms for its products, which include apples, basil, cantaloupes, eggplant, banana peppers, squash, watermelon, strawberries and Asian pears.
“There’s a real difference between us and traditional community supported agriculture” programs, Solganik said. “Most sell shares in their farms in exchange for a share of the bounty and a share of the distress in a bad year. .... We buy from a variety of farmers, which means we always have fruit in our basket, which is one of the down falls of a single-farm CSA.”
Farm 2 Fork offered 19 types of apples last year, and the diversity of its fruit and vegetable products is possible because it uses about 30 farms and producers, according to Solganik.
Although members of the program support local farms, they are not really shareholders, which decreases the risk posed by a bad growing year, he said.
Solganik estimates Farm 2 Fork and the TransPlant Project, a micro-farming sister program, will help create 200 jobs, more than 60 percent of which will be held by pre-screened ex-convicts.
The organization, which does not hire people who have committed sexual offenses or violent offenses against children or senior citizens, seeks to help ex-convicts become productive and contributing community members, company management said.
To sign up for the program, visit www.farm2forkfresh.com.
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