Increasing Access to Fresh Produce
Farmshed has donated hundreds of pounds of produce directly from our garden and local farms in 2022. Thanks to our established relationships with local farms and the ability to expand our growing space, participants of the Badger Box program, Mobile Pantry, and the overall community was able to access organic, fresh, whole vegetables and herbs.
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Expanding our growing space
Starting in the fall of 2021, Farmshed and volunteers from the Boys and Girls Club, University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, and community members began a massive project of transforming an overgrown vegetative space into a vegetable and herb garden. After many hours of weed pulling, soil laying, and planting, we expanded our growing space by 1,536 feet! We filled the garden with plants from the Growing Collective and Hmong farmers to grow produce for our food security program donations and the Sib Pab program. We donated at total of 125 pounds from our garden alone! We were sad to put the beds to rest this fall, but are excited to start again in the spring!
Badger State Boxes
In June of 2022, Farmshed became a distribution site for Badger State Boxes. Provided by the Hunger Task Force of Milwaukee, Badger State Boxes are a highly accessible supplemental nutrition boxes that source high quality foods exclusively from Wisconsin Farmers. With the support of volunteers, Farmshed is able to provide over 150 Badger boxes a month for the community. During the growing season, we also had produce available for program participants to choose from. The produce came from a combination of the newly expanded Farmshed garden, Giving Gardens, and local farmers.​
Mobile pantry of portage county
The Mobile Pantry is a non-profit organization that is run by volunteers who work to “enrich lives through the delivery of food to individuals and families with limited resources to access transportation to a food pantry.”
Central Rivers Farmshed partnered with the Mobile Pantry to enhance their contributions with locally grown, fresh produce. The Mobile Pantry receives donations of food and money for their deliveries, and our partnership best ensures that fresh produce is a part of that delivery. We have donated 336 paper grocery bags of local produce throughout 2022!