Thank you for the produce, Fair Foods!

Fair Foods of Dorchester, Massachusetts, has for over 30 years distributed really low cost high quality produce - vegetables (mostly) and fruits to about 70 locations neighborhoods throughout Greater Boston (mostly Boston)!

Years, ago, as part of my work with Mission Hill Health Movement (an nearly 40-year-old community health organization in the Mission Hill portion of Roxbury), we brought Fair Foods to Mission Hill (where they had not been currently operating).  Now they have more sites in the neighborhood, but the neighbors get 'upwards of 20 pounds' of fresh produce for $2 per bag.

"So that no one is left out..."

Here's the 'produce haul' (for $2 per bag) on Wednesday late afternoon, November 21, 2017 (the late afternoon BEFORE Thanksgiving).

*   1 box of 'Olivia's Natural' organic spinach
*   1 20-ounce bag of organic spinach
*   4 medium-sized yellow squash
*   4 large red onions
*   6 medium-sized yellow onions
*   1 large bunch of ultra fresh parsley
*   1 very large bunch of ultra fresh chives
*   2 tomatoes
*   3 artisan romaine heads (not endive, but 'artisan romaine'!)
*   4 medium-sized sweet potato

In addition, one could walk off with:
*   3 large 30-ounce loaves of freshly-baked, sliced 'Irish Oatmeal' (looks like Jewish dark rye bread) for $1
*   As many medium-sized pumpkins as one could haul away - no charge
*   As many medium-sized yellow squash as one could haul away - no charge (I saw boxes and boxes of the yellow squash)

Thanks you, Nancy Jamison of Dorchester, who "designed" (her word) Fair Foods and its food redistribution process "because the people are hungry...!"

Thank you, Directors, Volunteers, Sponsors, Publicists, Board members, and Friends and Beneficiaries of Fair Foods.  

When I was recruiting volunteers, I was chided (we don't need three times as many volunteers AS WE NEED) for my 'effective enthusiasm'!  Some of the college students would stand around and 'theorize' about how they could 'build out' the operation and 'optimize' it operationally.  One engineering student (reportedly) did a thesis on the topic.

When I was talking with neighborhoods 'clients' who came to get the fresh produce, I clarified the ethos as 'No qualification; no limits!'  Yes, if Donald J. Trump wanted to send a limousine to the Tobin Community Center, we would give the emissary as many bags of produce as s/he requested - at $2/bag.  So there's no need to be qualified by poverty or income level.  'Eat more produce!'

So, in Mission Hill where 3000 college undergraduates live, we do continue to see lots and lots of graduate and undergraduate college students, postdocs, visiting researchers and faculty, and hospital and healthcare workers.  Whether or not they're counting pennies, they're getting fresh produce.  But the majority of those who come by

That's what they want - "for everyone to go get" (the produce).

And several Longwood Medical Area-based researchers have assigned students to think 'with a long view' about how community health research would take note of the food components of their studies.

Fair Foods, Inc. in Dorchester, MA - (617) 288-6185

Recovering wholesome food and getting it to those in need

PAT GREENHOUSE/GLOBE STAFF

Distribution manager Jason Cammarata moved items from the truck to the car of Joyce Williams , one of the directors of Fair Foods.

By Lisa Zwirn GLOBE CORRESPONDENT  FEBRUARY 04, 2014

Every Thursday, the Fair Foods truck brings fresh fruits and vegetables to the Boston Housing Authority building on St. Botolph Street. “It’s cold, but they’ll come out,” says volunteer server Marion Thomson, of the tenants and neighbors who depend on the delivery. The system has been in place for 23 years, when longtime volunteer Sadie Savage negotiated the drop-offs.

PAT GREENHOUSE/GLOBE STAF

People stood in line for some of the available items.

When the truck pulls up, a few older male volunteers rush out to unload.  Driver Jason Cammarata, the 31-year-old distribution manager of the Dorchester-based food rescue organization Fair Foods, is carrying 3,000 pounds of oranges, 2,500 pounds of potatoes, over 1,000 pounds each of lettuce and bananas, green onions, and spinach for six destinations.

Rescuing wholesome, sometimes imperfect, food from supermarkets, wholesalers, farms, and other vendors that would otherwise go to waste and distributing it to people in need is a vital link in the emergency food system.

Today, food rescue is a critical solution to three unrelenting problems: rising food insecurity, increasing rates of diet-related illnesses such as diabetes and obesity, and shockingly high levels of food waste, estimated at 40 percent of the food produced in America.

Recovering wholesome food and getting it to those in need

And thank Boston Globe photographer, long-time vegetarian Pat Greenhouse, for the great photo of the hardworking Jason Cammarata.