December, 2023
By Leah Mathiason (GROWS Co-lead and Rusty Patch Farms)
GROWS had an amazing 4th Free Farmstand season! We engaged new volunteers in the neighborhood, added a 2nd location and day for the farmstand, Sundays at Parque Castillo and Wednesdays at the Beautiful Laundrette — so we doubled our impact on neighborhood food insecurity!
We continued our partnership with the West Side Farmers Market to bring rescued food left over from the market to the our Free Farmstand. Also new this year was some weekly youth programming in the gardens in partnership with Midwest Food Connection.
We also were super proud to host the Social Gastronomy Movement folks at our neighborhood farmers market and continued the conversation long into the afternoon at our library. Looking forward to next season!