Produce Service Helps Others As You Get Groceries

Toronto Star - November 1, 1999
by John Terauds

4,400 Families In Greater Toronto Part Of Initiative

Canadians are wonderful about responding to crises, but when a crisis becomes a long-standing problem, like homelessness, its too easy to forget or get tired of making the extra effort to give.

Perthaps making the giving part of our regular consumer routine might help us keep up a committment to our community. Perhaps seeing an improvement in the lives of individuals would also help spur our benevolence.

Such is the attraction of Field To Table, a service that distributes boxes of fresh produce to households in the Greater Toronto area.

Run under the Toronto umbrella of FoodShare, a registered charity, Field To Tables mandate covers broader community development issues as they relate to food.

By changing our buying habits, we can join the Field To Table service, receiving a regular box of produce for the household, without having to pay extra for a network that is helping disadvantaged people get back on their feet.

I joined the program in June, after discovering that my next-door neighbour, Phyllis, is a volunteer with Field To Table.

Phyllis explained that I had a choice of either a small or large box of produce, in either regular or organic forms. A small organic box turned out to be perfect for a two-person household. We order one of the $20 containers every two weeks.

Every other Tuesday, after work, I pick up my box from Phyllis. The typical box contains a mixture of leafy greens for salads, root vegetables, onions and fruit.

Included, too, is a one-page newsletter with a recipe relating to one or more of the items in the box.

I compared the cost of the contents with what we would pay for non-organic produce at our favourite greengrocer, and found that, on average, Field To Table cost 10 per cent more.

Our household doesnt notice that 10 per cent; I know that Im getting good organic produce; and I know that others benefit from my participation.

According to Field To Table manager Mary Lou Morgan, the program now serves about 4,400 families in the GTAC as far as Pickering in the east, north to Finch and west through Etobicoke

These households use one of 180 local co-ordinators to order and pick up boxes from. Every Tuesday 30 volunteers get together at the groups Eastern Avenue warehouse to pack the boxes.

They have lunch together and each get a box at the end of the day, says Morgan.

The other jobs at Field To Table are filled by young people who are there under some form of community service program.

Were about to get 20 kids from the streets on a 10-week program to get them connected to us,index.htm

Morgan explains, saying that the money to pay for this has come from the squeegee kid diversion project.

Asked where these young people will be housed, Morgan says, theyll probably be sleeping outside. She admits this is the most marginal group weve ever worked with.

But Morgan has every reason to believe the new groups experiences will help in reconnecting to the community. She uses the example of a young woman who went through a six-month stay last year, going from being a homeless squeegee kid to saving enough money to rent a room.

She still has her room,index.htm Morgan says, and now shes coming back to teach the new kids.

Morgan also points to the successful initiatives some of these kids have pursued. Mike, for instance, is growing oyster mushrooms as an experiment, funded by Rio Algom Ltd., in cleaning
heavy metals out of contaminated soil.

ANo, youre not getting those mushrooms in your box, Morgan assures me jokingly.

Field To Table also works very closely with its farmers.

We pay the going rate for the food, Morgan says.

When local farmers, who include Mennonite families near St. Jacobs, cannot provide a necessary foodstuff in season, the organization turns to the Ontario Food Terminal. Morgan also works with farmers to broaden the types of fruit and vegetables to grow. This week boxes will,for the first time, contain endive.

AI went up to an Italian grocer on St. Clair Ave. And bought some endive. I then went to one of our farmers near St. Jacobs and said, What about growing this?

And, best of all, the Eastern Ave. Operation tries not to waste a leaf.

We try to recycle everything,index.htm Morgan says. AWe make a power soup for the homeless (19,000 servings last year through community Out Of The Cold programs and street patrols such as Anishnawbe) and compost all the waste.

For more information about Field To Table, call Delsie at (416) 363-6441, ext. 21