News - Local News

POSTED: Saturday, Aug. 22, 2009

Bellingham Food Bank Farm means fresh produce for the hungry

BELLINGHAM - Nick Senger and Dmitri Januszewski are mixing water and ground-up fish guts in a greenhouse at the Bellingham Food Bank Farm.

The air around them reeks, but the beefsteak and heirloom tomato plants that will be fertilized with what Amaris Lunde, who oversees the farm, calls a natural steroid will be happy with the concoction.

As they continue working, Lunde walks through one greenhouse and into the second and along the fields in the three-acre farm at Guide Meridian and King Tut Road, north of Bellingham. The graduate of Western Washington University's Huxley College of the Environment points to sunflower sprouts, raspberry canes, red bell peppers, a variety of squash, and different kinds of peppers, from Anaheim to jalapenos to Serrano.

"All peppers are really popular," Lunde said.

In a nearby shed, garlic hangs on lines to dry. On a patch of land, Lunde points to a small orchard of cherry, apple, plum and pear trees planted this year.

Farming on the plot began in July 2007 with the aim of bringing produce fresh from the land to Whatcom County's hungry, who consistently ask for it, said Mike Cohen, executive director of Bellingham Food Bank.

While local grocery stores generously donate produce, he said, those are fruits and vegetables that can't be sold to the public because they're bruised, blemished or are edible but on their last legs.

"It's really different than something picked yesterday," Cohen said. "Everyone likes the freshest stuff they can get."

For Lunde, seeing food bank clients take home the fruits and vegetables she helped grow is gratifying.

"I was thrilled," she said. "It did reaffirm what I'm doing."

This year marks the farm's second full growing season, and the goal is 20,000 pounds of organically raised produce for the Bellingham Food Bank's clients. Last year, 16,000 pounds of produce - with a wholesale value of $54,000 - were harvested with the help of volunteers.

The farm is among a trio of agricultural-based programs started by or being overseen by the Bellingham Food Bank in the past three years. The other two - Small Potatoes Gleaning Project and a pilot called Farms to Food Banks - will deliver an additional 109,000 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables for the hungry in Bellingham and other parts of Whatcom County.

"The programs all are exciting," Cohen said.

Such efforts to get farm-fresh food into the hands of the hungry come at a time of increasing need. The Bellingham Food Bank has seen demand rise by 44 percent since 2007. Each month, it distributes 190,000 pounds of food, or the equivalent of seven full semi-trailers.

Land for the Bellingham Food Bank Farm comes by way of Cascade Christian Services, which runs boarding homes and other programs for people with disabilities. The organization approached Cohen in 2007, asking him if he wanted land for a farm.

It's not unusual to receive such offers, according to Cohen, but something - poor soil, the land hasn't been farmed before, there's no road to it - made the proffered land unworkable as a growing operation. And at the time, he was in the midst of raising money for the new food bank building.

But Cohen was in for a happy surprise when he later saw the parcel, which had been farmed previously and kept in good condition. There were two greenhouses, an outbuilding, farm tools, a tractor and water supply.

"It really was a turnkey operation," he said.

The food bank leases the land for $140 a month, with Cohen saying Cascade Christian was all but giving it away at that price.

The farm is collaboration among the Bellingham Food Bank, Small Potatoes Gleaning Project and Growing Washington. Small Potatoes, back when it was a separate entity, agreed to harness volunteers for the farm while Growing Washington, a nonprofit that supports sustainable, local agriculture, agreed to provide the farming expertise, which is where Lunde comes in.

Financial support also has come from the Mary Redman Foundation and Whatcom Community Foundation.

The Bellingham nonprofit isn't the only food pantry to raise produce for its clients through its own farm. The largest such effort in Washington state is Mother Earth Farm in the Puyallup Valley. Formed in 2000 by Emergency Food Network, the farm and its volunteers produce about 150,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables per growing season for the hungry in Pierce County.

Produce raised on its eight acres go solely to 70 food banks and feeding programs in Pierce County.

But running a farm isn't easy, especially for nonprofits that must maximize production but keep down costs, in short raise food as inexpensively as possible when the work is physically demanding and the conditions often-changing.

"We can't hire more staff by selling food," Cohen said.

One challenge is organizing different groups of volunteers, who can help for a limited time, compared to having a dedicated group of workers.

Carrie Little, farm manager of Mother Earth Farm, said the operation is helped greatly through its partnership with the Washington Correctional Center for Women at Purdy, whose inmates receive job training while working on the farm.

Cohen said the Bellingham Food Bank is getting assistance this year through the Summer Youth Employment Program. Funded by federal stimulus dollars, the program is paying for four full-time workers for the farm. Two of them are Bellingham residents Senger, 18, and Januszewski, 17 - the duo who were feeding fish guts to the tomatoes.

"The farm is a lot of hard work," Cohen said.

But for Cohen and Little, the effort is worth it.

"If there's a need, there's a way to pull it together," Little said. "There's certainly a lot of need out there right now."

BELLINGHAM FOOD BANK CONTINUES FARM PILOT PROJECT

BELLINGHAM - The Bellingham Food Bank is part of a state pilot project to connect local farmers to local food banks.

The food bank is one of four organizations in Washington state to receive a kick-start through state grants from the Department of Commerce's Farms to Food Banks program.

The project is in its first season of contracting at or below wholesale prices with local producers for milk, eggs and fresh produce for nine food banks in Whatcom County. Participating producers are Edaleen Dairy, Dairy Distributing, Hopewell Farm, Broadleaf Farm, Nooksack Nine and Alm Hill Gardens.

Each year, hungry Whatcom County residents will receive 39,000 pounds of organic fruits and vegetables, 11,856 dozen eggs and 12,4321/2 gallons of milk.

Bellingham Food Bank received $53,157 in grant money for the first year of what was supposed to be a two-year project.

But Washington legislators trimmed the follow-up funding because of the state's budget crisis. Food producers for three of the organizations said they couldn't continue with less money, but Bellingham Food Bank said it could, according to Tim Bernthal, the former coordinator for Farms to Food Banks.

As a result, Bellingham Food Bank will receive a total of $40,000 over the next two years for the remainder of the pilot, Bernthal said. But the state's budget shortfall meant that the food bank had to find additional financial support to continue the pilot, which it did through the Sustainable Whatcom Fund overseen by Whatcom Community Foundation.

Mike Cohen, executive director for the Bellingham Food Bank, said farmers may not make a lot of money off the pilot, but they will receive money up front and at a time of the year when they might be lean on cash.

"It's good for some small businesses," he said of the pilot, "and it's good for hungry folks."

TO LEARN MORE

bellinghamfoodbank.org and 676-0392.

gleaningproject.org.

growingwashington.org.

efoodnet.org, then click on "Mother Earth Farm" on the left.

commerce.wa.gov, then type "Farms to Food Banks" into the search window.