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Submitted by GRuB

This summer, Garden-Raised Bounty (GRuB) is partnering with Senior Services for South Sound to put good food in the hands of Thurston County’s low-income elders, and is expanding its offerings for families with young children.

For the second year running, GRuB will provide free weekly boxes of vegetables to low-income children, their parents, and seniors throughout the course of the summer, along with opportunities to connect on the land. It will host low-barrier volunteer days, providing meals fresh from the farm and ergonomic tools to support participants with limited mobility. Families on the Farm programming will include farm-based activities, nutrition education, shared meals, and free vegetable shares for families eligible for WIC (Women, Infants, and Children).

“One of our GRuB CSA members just told me that this program is the reason she has fresh produce for 10 weeks during the summer. She lives in a low-income apartment with her son and uses Dial-a-Ride to get places because she is in a wheelchair. She comes to the Olympia Senior Center every day during the week and says it is a joy to bring a bag of fresh organic food home on Fridays. She’s thrilled with this program!” says Cathy Visser of South Sound Senior Services. “As the Senior Nutrition Program Director for Thurston and Mason Counties, I know that this program is making a difference… I know that the low income seniors receiving no-cost CSA shares from GRuB are grateful because they tell me they are. Over the years, some of them have told me that their only source of salads and fresh vegetables is our senior lunches, which are served Mon-Fri. Now they have another source of fresh produce that they can bring home to prepare on their own.”

GRuB is a community-based nonprofit located in Olympia, WA. While federal funding for food assistance programs is currently up in the air through the Farm Bill, GRuB actually doesn’t receive government funding to distribute food to those in need. In fact, GRuB has very little funding to support important food assistance programming like senior farm shares and Families on the Farm programming, but chooses to run these programs anyway because everyone deserves to eat well.  To fully sponsor 20 seniors and 10 families this summer, GRuB still needs to raise $7,180 by the end of June and anyone in our community can sponsor a share. Its mission is to grow healthy food, people, and community. Its vision is of an equitable world where we are all nourished by healthy relationships, resilient community, and good food. Each year, GRuB directly engages approximately 650 Thurston County residents of all ages in relationships-based programming around food and agriculture. GRuB was recently named Non-profit of the Year by the Thurston Economic Development Council.  Visit www.goodgrub.org for more information or to sponsor fresh food for a senior or family this season.

Featured photo credit: Jo Arlow Photography​

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