Apples To Apples To Your Local Bodega
Ever bought produce from your local bodega? Odds are, unless you’re very brave or very stupid, probably not. If so, you’re painfully familiar with the all too typically limited old apples and wilted lettuce. What if your local bodega was the only option for food purchases? Sadly this is the reality for thousands of people in NYC. As a result, the prevalence of diet-related diseases is on the rise in those communities.
Luckily, Family farm Red Jacket Orchards has taken one big leap forward towards fixing this problem by joining The Healthy Bodegas Initiative. Their goal? To make local food readily available to everyone.
Formed in 2005 by the NYC Department of Health, the initiative has focused on getting bodegas more interested in selling healthy food. The response from store owners has been positive, however there’s no distribution model in place to actually deliver the food to them. Another hurdle is that even if they’re able to physically get the food, most stores don’t have the proper refrigeration appliances to keep the produce fresh.
That’s where Red Jacket Orchards comes in. Their goal is to build a Healthy Bodegas network that stretches from Bushwick to Bed Stuy by providing produce from their farm (eventually including their neighbors’ farms and their products into the mix).
They’re off to a great start. They’ve already partnered with a number of bodegas who are interested in selling local products and being involved in their project. But they need help/funding to really get the Healthy Bodegas Project going. Any help they can get will go towards the purchase of refrigerators, since the soda and beer sponsored refrigerators typically found in bodegas can only hold the sponsors’ products.
Here’s the kicker: their project will only be funded if at least $20,000 is pledged by Tuesday August 3rd at 5:59 EST. Help them make every market a Farmer’s market!
To donate and read more about their project visit http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/888795336/healthy-bodegas
