Food for Thought from Michelle Douglas, CEO

I love this time of year when the produce is coming up, our Mother Earth Farm is at peak distribution, and we are receiving produce from Eastern Washington – thanks to partners like Rotary First Harvest and Northwest Harvest.

This week, we received 15 giant bins of cucumbers and squash from Yakima, and thanks to our trusty volunteers, they will be repacked into manageable sized boxes and sent out to our 76 food pantry and meal site partners in the next couple of days.

Our Mother Earth Farm has been the beneficiary of lots of rain this season resulting in more than 93,000 pounds of beautiful, organically grown produce harvested already this year! It has been a wonderful year for lettuce, cucumbers, fennel, and squash and now that the weather has warmed up the tomatoes will be coming on strong.

This is our first year growing in our Community Garden at our Distribution Center in Lakewood. We have been harvesting green beans, tomatoes, kohlrabi, broccoli, zucchini, and cucumbers; with several other vegetables coming in this fall.

We are excited to be adding more fresh food to the emergency food system, and we are also grateful to the many home gardeners out there who are growing an extra row for our neighbors in need. Together, we are feeding Pierce County!