Moab, Utah: ‘What do you do with all the vegetables grown in the YGP garden?’
In 2023, of the 5,000-plus pounds of food we grew, 41% of our produce went to our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.
By Sarah Bowen
Special to The Times-Independent
Dec 26, 2023
Excerpt:
n this program, Moab residents can purchase a share at the beginning of the season and in exchange, receive either a weekly or biweekly produce box filled with an assortment of what is currently growing in the garden (P.S. — keep an eye out for CSA signups in January!)
This, along with 3% in direct sales, provides us with some of the funding to allow us to divert the remaining produce to other mission driven avenues:
This year, 13% was used in youth and community programs, 8% went into Grand County School District’s school lunches, we used 5% in on-site seed-to-table events, and finally 29% (almost ? of the food we grew!) was distributed via community partners (including MVMC, Seekhaven, and Our Village) to those in our community experiencing food and nutrition insecurity.
Two of the biggest barriers between our community members and locally grown food are 1. Access and 2. Affordability.
I met so many of you this year in the Nibble Garden, which is a large designated growing space within YGP that is along the Mill Creek bike path and entirely free for anyone to harvest from. We want tasty food to be within walking and biking distance for our community, and accessible to all who pass by the garden.
Though we didn’t track the Nibble Garden’s vegetable production to include in our 2023 percentages, we saw a significant increase in traffic and use of the space this season. There is demand for fresh produce and we want to continue providing this essential service to our community.
We are excited to share that we have reached our fundraising goal of $10,000! Every additional dollar donated will help us grow better food in 2023.
