Farm Bureau and Lady Moon Farms personnel gathered around a bin of tomatoes being prepared for food bank delivery. Left to right are: State and National Young Farmer & Rancher Committee chairman Matt Meals, Franklin County Farm Bureau President Jack Martin, YF&R Committee member Justin Conner, Lady Moon Farms forklift operator Chris Loreto, bookkeeper Shirley Ladowitz, general manager Lisa Manzano, YF&R Committee member Susan Conner and son Preston.
A project by Pennsylvania Farm Bureau’s Young Farmer & Rancher Committee in cooperation with the largest USDA-certified organic produce farm on the East Coast resulted in more than 600,000 pounds of fresh vegetables going to needy families throughout Pennsylvania this summer.
During the peak of the harvest season, trucks from the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank in Harrisburg were making 120-mile roundtrips twice a day to Lady Moon Farms in Franklin County to pick up bins of tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, green peppers, squash and other vegetables.
“Everyone at the food bank was ecstatic about it because of the quality and high nutritional value of the produce,” said Pat Davis, Director of Transportation Logistics at the Central PA Food Bank.
“The biggest surprise was how much there was,” added Kendall Hanna, Executive Director of the Food Bank. “The Young Farmers told us there was going to be a lot but we didn’t believe it a first.” Daily deliveries totaled at least 25,000 lbs. of vegetables.
The volume of food donated presented a logistical challenge to the food bank. “We didn’t have the infrastructure to deliver it all,” admitted Davis. As a result of that and good word of mouth about the quality of the fresh produce, the food was shared with food banks in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York City and Delaware, From there the food was distributed to people in need through outlets such as churches, food pantries, senior centers, feeding programs and local food banks.
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