Todd Hubler
In a small community garden plot outside the Salvation Army Community Center on Darbo Drive, Chi-Race Williams stood among the rows of vegetables on a mild day in September. Bags brimming with fresh vegetables already lined the adjoining sidewalk, ready to be picked up by passersby and neighborhood residents.
The bags were delivered by the Healthy Food for All project. The weekly deliveries aim to bring more fresh food to neighborhood residents.
Healthy Food for All, founded in spring 2015 by community food activists Chris Brockel and Joe Mingle, has recently received a matching grant by Buckets for Hunger to help continue its work in 2016.
Healthy Food for All increases distribution of locally grown produce in areas where it is not otherwise readily available. At least five areas within the city limits classify as food deserts — meaning they lack consistent access to safe, nutritious foods due to economic and geographical restraints — and approximately 16% of children in Dane County live in food-insecure households, according to the United Way of Dane County’s Healthy Food for All Children Community Plan released in 2013. Healthy Food for All drew its name from the plan. It also took to heart the plan’s goal to decrease the number of food-insecure children in Dane County by 50% by 2023.
As the former food and gardens division manager for the Community Action Coalition for South Central Wisconsin, Brockel had seen the disparities firsthand: “In this town, there’s an understanding of good food, but there’s a real divide between the haves and the have-nots.”
Brockel and Mingle set out to collect, clean, aggregate and distribute fresh produce. They started by using surplus produce they grew themselves. Brockel maintains a donation plot in the Elvehjem Community Garden, while Mingle works an acre with the Edgerton High School Future Farmers of America at Silverwood County Park, a Dane County park that contains a community garden. They gleaned more produce through outreach to other area farmers and gardeners.
Using a kitchen designed for vegetable processing at the FEED Kitchens on the north side, Brockel, Mingle, operations manager Mark Thomas and volunteers cleaned and packaged the produce before turning it over to pantries, community centers and, in the case of Darbo-Worthington and other food-insecure neighborhoods, directly to neighborhood coordinators like Chi-Race Williams.
As of the end of November, Healthy Food for All had processed 9,822 pounds of produce, more than triple the group’s goal of 3,000 pounds for the first year of operation. Rental of the commercial kitchen was made possible with a SEED Grant from the city and sponsorship from the Center for Community Stewardship.
Mingle says the goal is to expand to nine Madison-area locations in 2016, including Brentwood, Allied Drive, Meadowood and Owl Creek, delivering 50 or more bags of produce to each neighborhood weekly for “at least 10 weeks during the summer break.”
Doing something about food waste has been another priority for Healthy Food for All. According to a 2012 report by the Natural Resources Defense Council, approximately 40% of food produced in the U.S. is never consumed.
The group’s food-waste-reduction initiative, dubbed the “Waste Not-Want Not” project, repackages donated, ready-to-eat food (primarily from local businesses after catered events) and turns it over as quickly as possible to food pantries and community centers for redistribution. Since September, Waste Not-Want Not repackaged 4,627 pounds of prepared food for local food pantries.
As the group scales back its focus on fresh produce in the winter months, Mingle will pursue additional funding and more food donors, volunteers and refrigeration space. He hopes to distribute 10,000 pounds of surplus food next year.
“People that eat well are going to do better in school, have better health outcomes, maintain focus and do better at other things,” Mingle says. “It’s all tied together.”
Buckets for Hunger, located in Oregon, Wis., will provide a matching grant of up to $4,000 for donations it receives up to Dec. 15 earmarked for Healthy Food for All. See bucketsforhunger.com, call 888-351-9154 or see healthyfoodforalldanecounty.org.
