Key to Unadilla Community Farm’s mission is providing access to fresh fruits and veggies for low-income and low-access communities — grown, cared for, harvested, and packed by our beginning farmer training program participants.
The veggie box program consists of partnerships with local food pantries across Central New York to provide free produce for their clients. In 2022, we delivered produce to the Edmeston Community Cupboard, Cooperstown Food Pantry, Utica Food Pantry, Frankfort-Ilion Food Pantry, and Salvation Army Food Pantry in Herkimer.
In 2023, we will be offering volunteer days for folks in the local community to come help out on the farm, learn about our farming practices, meet others from the surrounding area, and help with our food access work. Volunteers will assist with tasks like planting and harvesting and packing veggies for delivery to local food pantries in the area.
Complementing our work with food pantries, the new fruit box program is geared towards individuals and families in the Edmeston area — a USDA low-income, low-access food desert, meaning an area with high poverty rates where the nearest supermarket is 10+ miles and a significant number of households don’t have a vehicle. The fruit box program is offered on a sliding scale, starting at $0, no questions asked. We offer local delivery at no cost as well as u-pick options at the farm. Some of the fruits we grow are: rhubarb, strawberries, currants, gooseberries, raspberries, sea buckthorn, elderberries, aronia berries, rosehips, and apples.
