After a Busy, Intense Summer, It’s Time to Plan for Fall
The days are getting shorter, the humidity is decreasing and temperatures are dropping. Last month, we gave out thousands of fall seedlings during our bi-weekly food distribution at Martin Luther King High School in East Germantown. As I look back to our summer, I want to share what has been going on at Food Moxie.
Our summer youth program supported five Saul High School students with hands-on and online learning opportunities while maintaining remote learning. Activities included cooking and growing, career exploration, resumé creation and additional workforce development opportunities. We provided 90 youths with container garden sets to continue to interact with organic agriculture experiences in hands-on ways. We also provided 30 students with cooking kits, pantry staples and weekly local seasonal produce that supported scratch cooking. The gardening and cooking experiences were the most popular.
We are grateful for our collaborative partnerships with Saul, The U-School, 8th and Poplar Farm, Haverford College and PowerCorps. And we’re thankful for our summer Haverford Fellows, Sarina and Ally, our youth coordinator, Anna, and all who helped keep our youth engaged this summer.
Cooperators and Co-op employees have helped Food Moxie continue our food distributions to over 60 students since March. In July, cooperators started helping with these produce box deliveries to our MLK and Saul students. We are so grateful for all this support; without it, food distribution would be much harder for us.
As of mid- August, Food Moxie has been able to distribute over $100,000 in local seasonal produce through deliveries to students and our bi-weekly distribution at MLK. Special thanks to Penn Charter’s Alyson Goodner, families and students, and to the Center for Public Purpose who provided support and well wishes for over six months.
And on to fall! Look for upcoming information on our website about a pivoted Urban Farm Bike Ride. Dorene and Brandon are actively planning fall activity kits for our students to stay engaged with growing, tasting and cooking activities.
If you would like to help, look for Food Moxie shifts on the Members Work Calendar. We will continue to fill root pouches and deliver kits to students for remote learning. And we will continue to need food delivery support.
We are inspired by all the gestures of kindness from community members across all of our program spaces. It takes a village, and we are grateful to you all for your ongoing support.
