Embracing Food and Community in the time of COVID-19

Written by Chris Gavin, Educator and After-School and Summer Program Coordinator

Youth intern and staff members preparing freshly harvested produce for donation

It would be an understatement to say 2020 has been a year like no other for Poughkeepsie Farm Project and how we offer educational opportunities to our community. Our world turned upside down in mid-March with the closure of schools in New York State, and all of our usual educational programs were abruptly halted. Since then, our team has been navigating the new realities of the COVID-19 pandemic and our country’s long-needed reckoning with systemic racism. The sudden upheaval to our work has given us a moment to pause and reflect on what we can do to better embody our mission of creating a just and sustainable food system in Poughkeepsie. Our education team has been digging into this important work with a sense of passion and joy to match the challenges of this unprecedented moment. While the structure and implementation of our programs has changed, the core goals of our work remain strong and in clear focus: making fresh vegetables and the means to prepare them at home accessible to our community AND engaging families in the important act of growing, preparing and eating healthy, nourishing, locally-grown foods.

Distance Learning

Poughkeepsie Food Power @Home, our new distance learning initiative, was born from our desire to stay connected with Poughkeepsie youth while in-person teaching isn’t possible. Our program consists of educational videosalong with cooking and gardening kits so families can complete the activities at home. We are aiming to provide families with a substantial amount of food to meet the growing food insecurity in our community, to give families engaging food-based projects to do at home, and to help families gain the confidence to grow and cook healthy foods. To date, we have provided 13 weeks of videos and activity kits to a total of 185 households. Some of our favorite projects have been growing microgreens at home, a container gardening project to meet the space availability of all participants, meal kits featuring recipes from around the world, and videos in English and Spanish to make our program more accessible to our community. In order to support our families during the start of the new school year, we also distributed over 300 educational supply kits and books to our participants.

PFP@Home participants proudly displaying their homemade kale quesadilla

Food Access

In response to the growing food insecurity in our community, our education team developed a food distribution program to get food into the hands of youth and families in the city of Poughkeepsie. Working in conjunction with the Poughkeepsie City School District’s Food Service Department, we have been distributing free produce from our farm at five free school meal sites every week since mid-March. In addition to providing fresh, healthy, locally-grown produce, we also give families printed recipes and storage tips to help people feel confident in preparing the food. One of the most powerful things about this food distribution model has been building strong connections with individuals and families, and we are proud to provide people with an experience that feels welcoming and positive in the face of the growing challenge of food insecurity. We believe that access to fresh healthy food is a right for everyone in our community, and distributing free produce in a dignified way is one step we are taking towards this goal.

Happy resident at a free produce distribution site

Community Harvest

Community Harvest Days at the farm are rooted in the ancient practice of gleaning, in which farmers would leave a certain amount of crops in the field and welcome community members to take what they needed. This serves the multiple purposes of cutting down on the waste stream in the local food system, gets food directly into the hands of people who need it, and connects people to the land and farming in a powerful community-oriented way. We’ve hosted 5 community events and harvested over 3,000 lbs of food for families to take home and to donate through partner organizations and school meal sites. Community Harvest Days have been a way for PFP to strengthen our commitment to food justice as we work to make our farm a place that feels welcoming to all and a resource for all in the community. In an effort to make these events more inclusive, we’ve incorporated live interpretation for Spanish-speaking participants, an indigenous land acknowledgement to recognize the original inhabitants of this land we farm, and opening the invitation to City of Poughkeepsie residents who participate in our after school programs and distance learning initiatives.

Community members gleaning peppers during a Community Harvest Day

Internship Programs

While nearly all in-person education was halted at the farm, we were able to provide a ten-week paid summer internship for six Poughkeepsie teens. The Green Jobs crew was involved in every aspect of growing, harvesting, and distributing produce in the community - working both in the farm fields and our educational gardens. In addition to this hands-on training, the teens also gained knowledge about food access in their own community as they acted as youth ambassadors during community harvest events and free produce distributions. This program also highlighted the links between food justice and racial justice as youth explored the historical roots of racial injustices embedded in our nation’s food system. The final project for the internship was creating an Anti-Racist Timeline and inviting all in the PFP community to consider how they are and can work towards being anti-racist advocates in their daily lives.

Braiding popcorn from the seed saving garden

We were also able to engage college students in new ways through both in person and remote internships. Our remote interns, a Vassar Community Fellow and a Shepherd Consortium intern, completed online projects to strengthen PFP’s virtual educational resources. Our new Food Share Story Map uses ArcGIS to explore how our Food Share Program is addressing food insecurity and growing community through sharing our harvest. Both also contributed to our Harvest of the Month Resource Hub which brings recipes, lessons, and engaging activities online for families and educators to learn remotely. Our on-site interns from the Culinary Institute of America and University of Vermont made valuable contributions to PFP through their work on recipe development, seed saving, weekly food distribution, and working in the gardens and farm fields to harvest vegetables and medicinal herbs.

Recipe testing

The Work to Come:

As this incredibly trying year comes to a close, we reflect as an organization on how we have met and continue to meet the challenges of 2020 - but there is much work still to be done. As an educator here at PFP, I can attest to the fierce joy and love that my team members bring to this work as we dig into our mission of building a just food system for all in our community. While the pandemic has highlighted so many challenges and injustices in our world, it has also brought people together in strength and solidarity. As a community, we must work together to ensure that everyone — regardless of their address, age, gender, or race — has access to fresh, healthy, affordable food. Let’s join together as a whole PFP community as we support each other on this journey towards accountability and equity - and of course delicious nourishing food. In closing, here are some personal statements from our education team on how we would like to strengthen our food justice efforts in the upcoming year.

"My hope is that this is a year of making good on our mission at PFP." - SonyaJoy

“Bringing people from the community into the Poughkeepsie Farm Project space is definitely something I want to do more of. Because it's just down the street from the community and it’s just not something people recognize as theirs, but it really is.” - Larissa

“Getting to be a part of neighbors coming together to share their love for growing and cooking delicious veggies! Continuing to listen and learn and bring ancestral wisdom and delicious recipes from Poughkeepsie families into our school and farm programs.” - Kathryn

“I want to continually expand what food justice looks like at PFP. And I want to help make PFP a safe and brave space where we can have needed conversations about racial justice in Poughkeepsie.”- Chris

“In 2021, I dream of creating a path to year-round jobs for youth in Poughkeepsie, and empowering our youth to see the connections between food justice, climate justice, and racial justice! All while planting seeds of language justice in our community so those who don’t speak the dominant language can begin to see the beauty in our bounty.” - Laura

“I am looking forward to strengthening our work at the intersections of food justice, racial justice, environmental justice, and language justice while taking leadership from our beautiful Poughkeepsie community.” -Jamie

Grower’s Row: As Summer Ends

By Patrick Lang

There is no better place to be than the farm for tracking the changing of the seasons. It seems that, in the blink of an eye, tender zucchini and sweet cantaloupe are replaced by potatoes and dark green kale, and we enjoy our first glimpse of winter squash being harvested and stowed away for the fall and early winter. Since farm labor is entirely impacted by the seasons, we also have been saying goodbye to amazing PFP farm interns, as well as a special longer-term crew member who is moving on to other exciting projects.

Veg Report
Crops are generally in very good condition after abundant summer rainfall: blueberries and green beans offered particularly large and tasty harvests this summer. Fall brassica crops (broccoli, kale, cabbages, radishes, rutabaga) are looking splendid following the surprisingly cool nights we’ve enjoyed throughout the summer. As always, however, there are winners and there are losers. Cherry tomatoes and peppers growing in the field this summer have not experienced the ideal amount of hot and dry weather that allows them to stay healthy and produce excellent fruit. If you notice haggard-looking cherry tomato plants in the pick-your-own section, know that cool and wet weather has precipitated the spread of fungal diseases. Peppers have been hit hard this season, first by hail when they were very young, and then by multiple heavy rains, all of which has made them more susceptible to bacterial diseases. While we are still able to harvest peppers, fruit ripened rather late this season, and we do not expect the plants to last long into September (despite this, of course, the crew continues to smile brightly while happily harvesting what they can!).

Internships and Training at PFP
We are sad to say goodbye to cherished summer interns, Fiona and Liz. It has been a joy to train and work with these engaged and energetic humans, and also to learn from them. We also say a temporary good bye to Merle, who fortunately plans on returning next season. We will miss you!

German, who is a full-season apprentice this year, has recently begun training in mechanical cultivation, which he will be taking over fully next year. This task, which involves weeding beds with tractor implements, requires much focus and careful coordination, since a slip of the steering wheel can translate to 10 kale or broccoli plants being uprooted in an instant. PFP has four cultivation implements that are used regularly, and they help us accomplish the same goal – a weed-free vegetable/fruit bed – in a variety of ways. Some bury weeds, some uproot them completely, and some cultivate the furrows. After brief training last fall, I managed cultivation this season; I am happy to have the opportunity to transfer that knowledge to another individual learning to farm here at PFP.

September on the Farm
I hope that I’ve helped to explain why patience is needed this season in the pepper and cherry tomato area. Remember how wonderful many other crops have been, due to the same cool, wet weather! The winter squash, potato, onion, and garlic harvests are now complete, and the farmers are excited to chill out a little more and sweat a little less. We are also excited to begin harvesting fall greens and roots! Parsnips, rutabaga, and celeriac continue to size up, and the first tender arugula and spinach leaves have our mouths watering. Enjoy the bounty!

Dan Gets into the Swing of Things

By Dan Salisbury, Education Intern

Getting back into the swing of things here as an Education Intern has been completely refreshing. As the new semester begins, I think I speak for all of the interns when I say we’re extremely excited to test brand-new recipes, come up with new lesson plans, and, of course, see the lovely kids again. While it was great to see our families and loved ones back home, it’s invigorating to see our PFP family once again.

We have been perusing various seed catalogues, carefully selecting vegetable crops for use in the Discovery  Gardens. Fun and whimsical produce is going to come into play; the students love working with all kinds of funky fruits and vegetables. We are setting aside a plot of land for a DIY plant Tie-Dye garden, another for the ever-popular Obstacle Course, and we’re always thinking of ways to further engage the throngs of happy and excited students as they make their way around the farm.

As a culinary student at the Culinary Institute of America just down the road, I always feel at home in a kitchen. A lot of recipe-testing has been going on inside the farm kitchen, and brand-new recipes are going to be making their way into classrooms and homes in and around Poughkeepsie. On a personal note, getting the chance to work with some amazingly fresh and delicious produce is something that I absolutely cherish about my time here at Poughkeepsie Farm Project; when the ingredients you’re using are of this caliber, it doesn’t take much to elevate them – all I’m doing is making sure things don’t burn!

I’m extremely excited to be involved with the return of Farm Fresh Home Chefs. These workshops are a chance for us to work directly with the students in the local schools of Poughkeepsie - best of all, the parents are there right beside their kids the entire time. Passing on some basic cooking tips and making kids smile with the occasional deft flick of a knife or a sauté pan is something that I’ve come to deeply enjoy; it doesn’t hurt that the parents leave with some cool ideas for easy, nutritious, and delicious meals.  

I’m also looking to get the CIA more engaged with the local communities of Poughkeepsie and Hyde Park. One of the projects the senior Applied Food Studies students are planning involves establishing an education garden in one of the local schools in Hyde Park. We’ll be looking to follow some of the successful models established by PFP, and I’m excited to lend the experiences I’ve gained here to the other students and faculty at my school. I’m also working on getting The Brewery at the CIA (yeah, we have our own brewery…the scotch ale is absolutely delicious!) to donate their spent grains to PFP for use in compost. Spent grains are a by-product of the brewing process, and it only makes sense to utilize this by-product that otherwise would be thrown out. In a way, everything comes full circle: CIA students learn how to brew beer, a small percentage of spent grains are used in baking and other cooking applications (think a sort of nutty/malty flavor profile) and the rest will be donated to PFP’s compost pile, where school-aged students will learn all about the process of decomposition. This kind of small-scale community impact becomes a sort of cyclical endeavor that I strive each and every day to reach in all aspects of my work at PFP. Now, it’s time to get cookin’!

PFP Alumna Starts Rock Steady Farm & Flowers

Rock Steady Farm & Flowers turns four this week -- four months old that is! As a PFP alum it feels particularly special to share the news of my new farm with all of you!

I apprenticed at PFP, under farmers Asher and Wendy, for two transformative seasons in 2010 and 2011. I moved on to manage Huguenot Street Farm for a few years, a 12 acre vegetable CSA in New Paltz. In need of some inspiration and a new challenge, I accepted the flower grower position at Sol Flower Farm in Millerton and built their cut flower operation from the ground up. Sol Flower decided to shift focus last fall, and the veggie grower and I were presented with the opportunity to purchase the equipment and CSA membership list.  Not able to pass up the opportunity, I teamed up with two amazing human beings and highly skilled farmers, Maggie Cheney and D. Rooney, to start Rock Steady Farm & Flowers in Millerton!

Rock Steady Farm & Flowers is a vegetable and professional cut flower farm with a growing CSA membership, that sells to farmer’s markets, wholesale accounts locally and in NYC, and direct to brides and grooms who want DIY wedding flowers. We are a small farm with a big vision! We are deeply rooted in social justice and have a strong commitment to making sure all of our community members have access to the food we grow. In addition, we hope to create a cooperatively owned business that empowers its workers, provides stable employment and a living wage.

Part of what inspired me to take the big leap and start a farm was our ever expanding community of support, both here in Poughkeepsie (where my partner and I still live) and in Millerton. Getting Rock Steady Farm & Flowers off the ground isn’t just about us three owners working our tails off and pouring over budgets until wee hours of the night. It’s also about the people and organizations that have stepped in and stepped up because they believe in what we are trying to do in the community.

This winter and spring our CSA members stepped up in true ‘Community Supported Agriculture’ style. They stuck with us through the farm transition and their commitment allowed us to purchase our first seeds, to buy the first tank of propane for the greenhouse, and pay the electric bills. They helped bridge that gap, which literally made all the difference. Although I’ve been working on, and managing, CSA farms for many years, it’s been in the last few months that the power of a committed CSA has actually started to settle in.

As a start up farm, I’m particularly proud of the fact that Rock Steady has been able to launch our low income CSA share program in our first year, with the goal of serving 88 families in 2016. This was possible through two important non-profit partnerships. The first, started three years ago, and is sponsored by the North East Community Center. Through this partnership we will provide vegetable boxes to 70 families in the Millerton area. We are also actively fundraising with Neighbors Helping Neighbors and The Watershed Center, to expand our program to reach an additional 18 families in Ancramdale. Our goal is to raise $12K by May 1st. Learn more about our low income CSA program and how to donate here!

The Watershed Center (WC), is a social and environmental justice retreat center, that shares the farm property with us. The energy and community around the WC were a big draw in choosing to farm in Millerton. The founders and staff have been working with us from day one and we are excited to expand our impact through integrated programming. They introduced us to The Working World, a non-extractive investment fund that supports worker owned businesses, which provided Rock Steady with the financing needed to purchase equipment, infrastructure, supplies, and the working capital to run the farm. We’re proud to be the first business to receive a loan through their new “local community fund” that’s developing!!

With all of this community support, starting Rock Steady has been both an empowering and humbling experience. It calls me back to my time at the PFP as an apprentice - having so much to learn, relying so heavily on my mentors (yes, Asher is still on speed dial) and impatiently looking forward to the first harvest!  What I learned at PFP, both in the fields and through my involvement with the sponsored share program, informs my work every single day. It’s grounding to carry forward the work of PFP, and I’m thrilled to have Rock Steady join the local network of individuals, organizations, and businesses that are committed to social and economic justice.

Follow Rock Steady’s adventures this season by following us on Instagram and Facebook, and visit our website to learn more about the farm and contribute to our low income CSA program!!

With much gratitude,

Angela Defelice