• Feature
Kids’ vegetable consumption drops to 4 %!*
• Feature
BUFA comprises five black farmers, all retired from their previous careers, and is celebrating its two-year anniversary this summer. The group holds a contract to grow produce for the PUENTES CSA, as well as other CSAs serving Oakland, Marin and Sacramento.
“ The impact we’ re making is educating people so they can see that food doesn’ t just come from the supermarket,” Inez Aldridge says.“ It comes from the soil and with everyone’ s help, including the kids, we can create a sustainable community with healthy and fresh foods.”
From one of the community gardeners to now farming for PUENTES, the Aldridges have grown right alongside the organization. Terhune says it has been a great joy to observe how his organization has grown from a small community garden to the driving force behind urban agriculture in San Joaquin County.
PUENTES has joined in an innovative partnership with San Joaquin County Healthy Retail and Mandela Marketplace to become a small-scale distributer for corner stores and small restaurants that cannot afford to do business with larger distributors. Business owners will be
able to visit the organization’ s online platform to browse offerings and have appropriately sized orders delivered to their business every week.
Starting in June, they launched a bi-monthly farmers market with EBT purchase options at Boggs Tract Community Farm. They will also launch an Urban Forestry project in partnership with California ReLeaf, Washington Elementary School and the Port of Stockton to plant more than 200 trees to combat air quality.
“ PUENTES envisions neighborhoods throughout the region— like Boggs Tract— that over time, will become more food secure, economically resilient and offer a healthier environments as a result of a thriving network of urban agriculture activities and farm businesses,” Terhune says.“ We view hunger, malnutrition and environmental quality as community-based issues.” •
Cherise Henry is a freelance writer, editor and journalist. She earned degrees in journalism and marketing from Sacramento State. Read more at www. cherisehenry. com. On Twitter @ cherisehenry
Located in Fair Oaks on 22 acres
NEW STUDY:
Kids’ vegetable consumption drops to 4 %!*
* According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention & the National Fruit & Vegetable Alliance
Kindergarten-12th grade
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