Neighborhood Foods, a West Philly urban farm, Liberty Lands Park and Northern Liberties’ Café Chismosa have partnered to bring a farmers’ market and CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share program to the neighborhood this summer.
Dylan Baird, Business Manager/Programs Coordinator for Neighborhood Foods, said the organization’s goal is to create a financially sustainable urban farming business that “empowers the community it’s in.”
“These markets and CSAs create food access, classes, employment and events [to the neighborhood],” he said in a phone interview Friday.
Customers pay at the beginning of the season for a box of local produce every week, from May to October.
For a half share of produce, the price is $325; for a full share, it’s $600, and for a fruit-only share, it’s $220.
The CSA pickup on Fridays, beginning Friday, May 24, is at Café Chiamosa, 900 N. 4th St., and the farmer’s market will be at Liberty Lands, on the 3rd Street side, beginning on May 30.
The CSA food is a mix from Neighborhood Foods’ West Philly farm, its South Philly farm, and a 45-acre farm in Lancaster. For all the options of food, visit neighborhoodfoods.org/csa.html.
Customers can use EBT cards for purchasing, as well as FMNP vouchers — available in July, they are vouchers for seniors and low-income families — and if a customer uses an EBT card, for every $5 they spend, they get back $2.
“By using an EBT card, you’re really saving 40 percent,” Baird said. “The purpose [of the CSA] is to engage a mix of people across all different types of income.”
The great thing about Liberty Lands, Baird continued, is that it was a repurposed vacant lot.
“That’s out pride and joy farm,” Baird said of Neighborhood Foods’ own produce hub. “It used to be just an awful vacant lot, now it’s this beautiful farm.”
“This is why we need to be taking vacant lots and turning them into gardens,” Baird continued.
Managing Editor Mikala Jamison can be reached at 215–354–3113 or at mjamison@bsmphilly.com.
