Growing the Table Provides Free, Organic Produce to Salinas Farmworkers
Sept. 13, 20121 - On Monday, Assembly member Robert Rivas (D-Salinas) joined farm workers like Guillermo Lazaro at the Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association (ALBA) to discuss fundraising needed to extend the program until next year.
“If we found some people that can help us, that’s the only way we can grow business,” Lazaro said. “I don’t want to be rich, I just want to have dignity, a house, my family and just help keep growing food.”
One of the biggest objectives of the pilot program is ensuring that farmworkers are among the first to access the food they grow.
Growing the Table, a pilot program that delivered locally grown food to food-insecure families throughout the Central Coast, has donated more than 138,000 pounds of food to Salinas families and throughout Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties. since May.
However, with the end of this 15-week program set for October, the hope is that Growing the Table can get the funding needed to continue serving families long-term.
“The pandemic showed us just how fragile our food system is," said Kat Taylor, founder of Growing the Table. "Millions of pounds of fresh produce rotted in fields while record levels of Americans faced prolonged hunger."
…..Growing the Table has raised around $280,000 which was mostly secured by individual donors, but advocates say they hope the program will be state funded soon.
“This needs to be an example and a model of what we need to do to eliminate all food deserts in the State of California,” Rivas said.
To read the complete article, visit the Salinas Californian.
