Originally published in the Napa Valley Register on July 25, 2022.
July at the Napa Famers Market is the Friends of the Market fundraising campaign during which our non-profit association asks everyone to donate to support the market. Now before you pass to the next article or side-step the donation booth while you are at the market, please hear from a farmer why you should donate to this wonderful cause.
Perhaps the most important thing I will accomplish as a farmer is to feed people. The food I and other farmers grow goes directly into making you healthy and strong. It goes into your children and grandchildren’s bodies to make them not only grow but have a positive and environmentally sustainable relationship to food. It feeds aging grandparents who have a hard time eating and can only enjoy simple, nutritious food. And most importantly, the food farmers grow can be accessible to all.
“Can be” is up to you though. To feed people I can harvest lettuce in freezing cold rain or melons in 105-degree heat, my neighbor can personally and ethically slaughter chickens all day, and all my farmer colleagues can never give up on farming despite its challenges. But we cannot make food accessible to all. It is too much to ask us to bear this burden alone.
Small farmers and their employees often qualify for the food assistance programs that we accept at the farmers markets because we are not a wealthy group. The cost to farm keeps rising, and the margins keep diminishing. We cannot lower our prices and support our own families. But today is not about asking you to pay more for your food than your cell phone bill. Instead, I ask you to help farmers make food accessible for all by donating to the Friends of the Market fundraising campaign. Farmers can grow the food, and you can support organizations that make high-quality and nutritious food affordable for everyone.
It does not matter what you look like, where you live, how much money is in your bank account, and what language you speak for you to deserve healthy food. But unfortunately, the American food system is built around a structure that makes cheap food, less than healthy food. Until we dismantle and rebuild the entire food system, we can turn to non-profit organizations to bridge the gap between those who cannot afford the high price of healthy food and those who can.
The Napa Farmers Market Association is not only a hub for multiple food assistance programs, but it also gives money to low-income families to shop at the market. Meaning every dollar is returned to the farmers at the market. In 2021, the Napa Farmers Market Association matched over $53,000 in CalFresh dollars and served 428 CalFresh households. And this year we anticipate matching over $72,000 this year, but this cannot be accomplished without your donation!
Incredible individuals donate their time to make the Napa Farmers Market Association possible. It is our board of directors that help set up the market early in the morning, who kept the market open and safe during the pandemic, who work with the City of Napa to find the market a permanent home, who fundraise and donate to Market Match, and who write you weekly Napa Valley Register articles for your entertainment and education. It is a wonderful group of people that makes up an essential and beautiful non-profit organization whose main purpose is to bring food to all.
So, on behalf of the famers, please consider donating to the Friends of the Market fundraising campaign to sustain the market, directly support farmers, expand food assistance programs in Napa, and create equitable access to local food. Please help us reach our goal of $35,000 by donating before August 9 at www.napafarmersmarket.org/donate. Thank you!