I want to first thank so many of you out there for your donations and support recently. We could not be here today if it weren’t for your help! Thank you!
Since the COVID-19 outbreak hit, Countryside restructured our operations so that we can keep serving our mission and our constituents.
- Each week for the last 2 months our intern farm has grown, harvested and donated fresh, organic produce to a local food pantry.
- Our team converted our farmers’ Market to a curbside model to ensure that we could continue to safely connect local farm and food businesses to consumers during the pandemic. Although we are still working through the glitches, it has been very reassuring to vendors and customers.
- We made sure that we could find a way to keep serving all our SNAP customers and keep matching Produce Perks incentives available for them to purchase more fresh fruits and vegetables for their families.
- Our leadership is staying engaged and at the table in conversations that address farm viability and food access for businesses and families in need during this crisis.
- We are working on ideas with partners that will help us build resiliency in our food system that include ensuring stewardship and justice.
Every actor in our food supply chain is being impacted in one way or another, some good, some bad and some really bad. COVID-19 shook the house and every crack in the plaster is a glaring reminder of the fragility, inequity and necessity of our food supply chain. The impact of this is a glimpse of the national and global threat that lies ahead if we don’t take a holistic approach to food system problems.
There has never been a better time to begin addressing these issues than right now! I hope that you will join us in our efforts and support our work by donating to Countryside. Every dollar truly helps, especially right now!
Countryside has been connecting people, food and land for the last 20 years and I promise you, we are here for you now and working as hard as we can for farmers, our park and for you!
I know we will be back at Howe Meadow soon and I hope to see you all there.
Take care and thank you,
Tracy Emrick