At TapRoot Farms we have been asking ourselves over the years how we can be more helpful to families around us who are experiencing food insecurity. We have been trying, since we started (many moons ago), to find a balance between our beliefs and passion to grow certified organic food with the cost of production to do so with our communities ability to access our food financially. We don’t grow organic food to have a premium price. We farm organically because we believe in the principles of organic: health, fairness, ecology and care. We have been offering gleaning events over the years. For the past three years we have been delivering food boxes on Sunday’s to anyone who reaches out and requests one. We trust if they ask, they need it. The Sunday donation food boxes have been working well with a small team of volunteers who deliver the boxes within a short radius of the farm. These days we are averaging 20 boxes a week.
I feel we need to do more and as our summer/fall offering of our CSA is quickly approaching, we are thinking it would be a good time to reach out with a call to action. A call for you to act in support of the farm by purchasing a CSA membership for 2023 and a call for us to to act by providing more food to more families who identify as needing it by way of CSA shares. The idea is to provide transparency for you to see how your investment in us reaches more than us. It reaches our farm team, all those who we work with in the community and it reaches families who are seeking ways to access local and organic vegetables. 
Here is the idea: For this Summer/Fall CSA every 10 CSA shares that are purchased (any kind: veggies, meat, eggs, fruits, veg/fruit) we will make one CSA share of that type available at any of the pickup locations to a family who needs it. So for example, if there are 30 veggie share’s purchased then there will be 3 available for donation. Or if there are 40 meat shares there will be 4 available. We will connect with a family who identifies as needing it and provide them with a membership for the duration of the share cycle. TapRoot CSA Share sales are open now so from today onward until the share sales end (early July) this call to action is in place.
We are excited about the season ahead. We offer a skilled and dedicated team smiling and on the ready. We offer seeds waiting for seeding dates and transplants growing strong in the greenhouse. The soil is healthy and earth worms abundant. Join our CSA for a season of delicious and impactful eating.
You can learn more about our farm and CSA on our webpage (taprootfarms.ca). Feel free to reach out to the farm anytime. In the weeks ahead there will be a CSA members farm event. More details coming soon on that. Thank you for your support for all of these years. It means a lot!
