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The Denver Botanic Gardens run a community supported agriculture (CSA) program at their farm in Chatfield. In addition to growing food for their members, in June 2014 they began taking the food off the farm and into the hands of folks who live in Denver area food deserts, low-income areas without a full-service grocery store near by.
The farm stand debuted on the first Friday in June near Denver Human Services, in the Sun Valley neighborhood, and will continue to operate there on the first two Fridays of every month through October. The second location is downtown on the 16th Street Mall, where it will operate for the second two Fridays of the month.
To make their farm-grown fruits and veggies accessible to everyone, all the stands are accepting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits (SNAP), with discounted prices for produce bought using SNAP.
“People using EBT have been over the moon,” said Josie Hart, who runs the farm stands for the Gardens. “They keep saying, ‘I can’t believe I can buy fresh produce right now with a wireless reader.’” Often, she explained, the best produce someone might be able to buy in a food desert with SNAP is a banana at the nearby 7-Eleven.
Hart said the farm stands sold out their inventory on their first two days in Sun Valley, and said they had a rush when they first set up downtown, too. The farm stands will be offering recipes, in English and Spanish, featuring the produce they sell.
Other locations are still being finalized, with a likely location in Denver Housing Authority’s Mariposa District, but the goal is to get a farm stand up and running in food desert neighborhoods all throughout Denver.
By The Numbers
1
Supermarket
for every Latino neighborhood, compared to 3 for every non-Latino neighborhood
