Farm to Fight Hunger: Providing Food During a Global Pandemic
Bruce Mentzer
Founder & Farmer, Farm to Fight Hunger
What would you say to your older self?
Keep calm and carry on.
What makes you feel like a real grown-up?
Being in full charge of my daily schedule, and enjoying every minute of it.
What's the weirdest thing in your tote bag?
Multi-colored love beads. When I see them I’m reminded to add some levity to every situation.
Best gift you gave or received?
Giving feels better than receiving. Every week when we deliver vegetables and eggs to our neighbors in need, I receive everything I ever wanted.
Benetton or esprit? or ____ ?
Patagonia.
The Next Verse: Bruce Mentzer, Philanthropic Farmer
When I retired to Sonoma County, California after 30 years in political/issue advocacy, I didn’t exactly envision farming food for people in need amid a global pandemic, but here we are.
In fact, when I left the rat race I had no immediate plans for a next act, but loved gardening and signed up for a gardening class at the local junior college. In just a few short years, in a sort of organic (so to speak) manner, I found my way to what I am doing currently, and I have honestly never been so happy and content in my purpose and in my life.
I was on the board of a local nonprofit that “gleans” unwanted fruit and vegetables and then donates the food to locals in need of healthy food. I’d decided to seek a degree in Sustainable Agriculture, and the program required us to write a business plan for a market garden operation. With no interest in starting another business, I wrote mine instead for a nonprofit garden that grows specifically what food pantries need most. Once done with school, I had an aha moment to just do it. It already had a name: Farm to Fight Hunger.
I had expected that the community would be happy with what we were doing—last year we grew and donated over two tons of healthy vegetables, and since January 1 of this year we have donated over 4,500 eggs from our pastured poultry operation. An estimated 22% of Sonoma County’s people are food insecure, including 18,500+ children. But I’ve been overwhelmed by the level of interest, involvement and financial generosity that they’ve embraced us with. Not only are we doing something we love, and helping the community be stronger, but we now get to hang out with all the folks who seem to understand the true meaning of community and life.
As you can imagine, our local food distribution centers are seeing a large uptick in need right now. We moved up our production schedule a month ago to get cool season crops in the ground early. In a few weeks we will have over 800 heads of lettuce, and much broccoli, kale and cauliflower to donate. We are increasing the size of our full garden this year by 50%, and will grow a lot more food than last year. Our chickens are laying and just last week we donated 720 eggs to the distribution centers.
What can you do? In a lot of cases, excess food is available; it just doesn’t seem to be in the correct location. For anyone who has excess vegetables from their garden, or a neglected fruit tree, consider contacting a local “gleaning” organization to harvest and distribute it, or pick it and deliver it to your local food pantry. You can also volunteer to “grow an extra row” if you already have a garden. Every piece of healthy food matters.
