It felt so good to see 100 Texas Farm Veggie Boxes safely make their way home with folks on Wednesday afternoon! The veggies were harvested Sunday and Monday, the boxes were packed Tuesday in Houston at the fabulous Common Market food hub, and they arrived at Elgin’s Firewild on Main St. on Wednesday morning. Prepaid orders were picked up curbside at designated pickup times to maintain social distancing and keep everyone healthy. Every ten boxes sold enabled us to donate a box to a vulnerable family.
Thanks to the support from the community, we were able to fund a donation of 10 boxes to the Elgin Community Health Center! Their wonderful staff identified 10 families with children who have diet-related illness to receive them. The staff picked up their boxes Wednesday morning and got them to families that day. True to our mission during these difficult times, we plan to continue to grow this program and our capacity to provide increasing numbers of vulnerable families with fresh, nutrient rich food grown by Texas farmers. Every child who is healthier because of our collective work with you is a win for all of us.
This week’s Texas Farms Veggie Boxes this week included healthy portions of beautiful fresh broccoli, heirloom lettuce, green curly kale, green cabbage and sweet potatoes. Yum! Each week, the farmers will select the best of seasonal vegetables and harvest them for Texas families.
This program is made possible in part by The Common Market, a mission-driven distributor of sustainable, local farm foods. They typically sell wholesale to schools and restaurants, all of which are now closed, as you know. Veggie Box purchases ensure that many Texas farmers will continue to have income and that our Texas food system can withstand the economic impacts of COVID-19.
Every Thursday,, we will be opening up orders for the following Wednesday’s veggie delivery and pick-up. For Wednesday, April 1, we have increased the total amount of boxes available for sale to 170. We are currently working to make boxes available to SNAP (Lone Star Card) recipients.
To order, please visit the Texas Local Food Store.