FOOD Where It’s Needed FARMERS AND ORGANIZATIONS PARTNER TO HANDLE MARKET SHOCKS AND FEED HUNGRY NEIGHBORS
IN ORDINARY TIMES, the complex systems that keep millions of Floridians fed are seemingly invisible. It takes a major economic shake-up to show just how essential every step in the process is. When coronavirus-related shutdowns began to affect the citizens of Florida, many local farmers were experiencing the 4
peak of their harvest. “Our harvest season is usually from December to the middle or end of April,” says Stephen Basore, director of food safety at TKM Bengard Farms in Palm Beach County. “With farming, you start spending money early at planting and you get your income later on during the harvest. The break-even point is somewhere toward the end of our season. Unfortunately, business just dropped off at the tail end of our deal.”
FLORIDAGRICULTURE | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020
With conventions, tourism and restaurants all suddenly not placing orders, the planned destinations for much of Florida’s produce dried up. Feeding Florida and its network of 12 Florida food banks went to work immediately to attempt to reroute this food through produce-recovery programs.
SPRINGING INTO ACTION “Within days, we asked our growers if they wanted to create direct-to-consumer-style boxes for food banks,” says Sherri Atwell,
PHOTO: ISTOCK.COM/YANA TATEVOSIAN
By Laura Leavitt
