In The Media

Posted Apr 16, 2020
By Brandon Gould | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

In less than 48 hours, it all came together.

A truckload of produce, dairy and other items sparked the initiative and gave Rolling Harvest Food Rescue what it needed to quickly set up a an emergency free farm market in Lambertville earlier this month.

With just two days notice, the word spread in a hurry.

The organization handed out food that went to feed more than 1,000 people.

“We’ve been doing these year-round in Bucks County, but this one was able to benefit the New Hope-Lambertville area,” said Rolling Harvest Food Rescue Founder and Executive Director Cathy Snyder. “People came from all over once the word got around. It kind of went viral. It was supposed to be from 11 to 1, but we started at a quarter of 11 because there were so many cars backed up already.”

One of the volunteers on April 4 in Lambertville, Evan Lide, said what he saw that day was both “heartwarming and devastating.” He made a donation afterward and told Snyder he was willing to do whatever it took to help set up another free farm market.

“I was so proud of what we did on Saturday, but when I went home, I told my wife what I had seen. And I cried,” Lide wrote to Snyder in an email. “Why is that? It’s because of what I saw in these people’s faces. It was fear. It was the fear of not knowing how they will provide for their families. It was the fear of not knowing how they will get through this, or even if they will get through this.”

These services haven’t just popped up recently, but the impact of organizations like Rolling Harvest Food Rescue have become crucial during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Millions of people around the country have lost their jobs and filed for unemployment with the closure of non-essential businesses. The closure of schools has also had a big impact and increased the need for help from food pantries and free farm markets like the one Rolling Harvest Food Rescue put together in Lambertville.

“So much of the face of hunger right now in this country are kids, especially now with these kids being out of school and not having access to reliable breakfast and lunch,” said Snyder. “It’s a position that a lot of people never thought they’d be in, asking for help to feed their family and feed their family well.”

Rolling Harvest Food Rescue is working to put together more emergency free farm markets that will soon be taking place in New Jersey. The organization has partnered with New Jersey Farmers Against Hunger to make sure it can do it “bigger and better” the next time around and feed even more families.

These farm markets are open to anyone struggling to take care of their family’s basic needs. No registration or I.D. is required to come and collect food. Volunteers will practice safe social distancing and will be outfitted with masks, gloves and hand sanitizer.

Zone 7, Solebury Orchards, Bright Farms, Fulper Family Farmstead, Shady Brook Farms and Dairy Farmers of America have all helped and been a part of Rolling Harvest Food Rescue’s effort to provide food to families in need. Donate to Rolling Harvest Food Rescue here.

“Every non-profit is going through so much demand for basic services than we ever could have imagined,” Snyder said. “For Rolling Harvest Food Rescue, being able to respond to the need and quickly scale up with donations, we’ve had to change the model because there are so many people in need. It’s really been sobering and humbling and we’re all trying to do the best we can.”

DAIRY FARMERS SEND TRUCKLOADS OF MILK TO FAMILIES IN NEED

NEWS PROVIDED BY: American Dairy Association North East
Apr 15, 2020, 15:53 ET
SYRACUSE, N.Y., April 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/

Rising unemployment and school closures are putting added stress on America’s food pantries. As a result, food banks across the nation are being hit hard by complications of the coronavirus.

Two dairy farmer organizations have joined forces to get truckloads of milk to those in need. American Dairy Association North East , representing over 10,000 dairy farmers, and Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), a national cooperative owned by dairy farm families across the U.S., has teamed up with Dean Foods processing plants across the Northeast to help deliver much needed milk to communities across the region.

“Fortunately, dairy farmers have not experienced a disruption in milk production, and there is no shortage of milk,” said Rick Naczi, CEO, American Dairy Association North East. “Milk is an essential item for nutritional wellbeing and meal preparation, especially for households with children. We’re doing everything we can to make sure families have access to milk.”

“As a dairy cooperative owned by family farmers across the country, we are dedicated to helping provide nutritious food for family tables,” said Jennifer Huson, Senior Director Marketing, Council Affairs and Industry Relations for DFA Northeast. “Knowing that millions of Americans are struggling right now to make ends meet and with food banks being a critical local resource to help feed those families, we knew that we had to figure out a solution.”

This week over 50,000 gallons of milk are being delivered to food pantries served by City Harvest of Queens, N.Y., Rolling Harvest Food Rescue serving Bucks County, Pa., and Mercer County, N.J., Share Food Program of Philadelphia, Pa., Fayette Food Bank of Republic, Pa., Weinberg Northeast Regional Food Bank of Pittston, Pa., Community Action Planning Council of Watertown, N.Y., Food Bank of Delaware in Newark, Del. and the Salvation Army in Syracuse, N.Y.

“We are so happy to be able to give such a valuable food item to our community and share with other food rescue partners,” said Jamie McKnight, Program & Development Director of Rolling Harvest Food Rescue. “This milk we be distributed by the end of the day and we will continue to schedule deliveries as long as there is a need.”

By Peg Quann ~ Posted to the Intelligencer
April 9, 2020 at 10:10 AM

Rolling Harvest Food Rescue distributes donated dairy products as Fresh Connect prepares to be open on Good Friday in Bristol Township.

The Fresh Connect outdoor food market that supplies free fresh produce to needy families in Bucks County normally doesn’t take place on Good Friday. This year it will.

“Because of the need we decided to do it this Friday,” said Joseph Cuozzo, director of development for the Bucks County Opportunity Council, which runs the market on Fridays from noon to 1 p.m. in Bristol Township at the Gene and Marlene Epstein Campus of Bucks County Community College off Route 413.

“Last week and this week, we’ve seen a 40% increase,” Cuozzo said, in the number of people who came out for the free produce and other food. In Bristol Township alone last week, members of 275 households showed up. The people come early and wait in line for the distribution to begin.

The BCOC runs the program with the support of the United Way of Bucks County, Philabundance, St. Mary Medical Center and the Rolling Harvest Food Rescue.

The market also takes place noon to 1 p.m. Tuesdays in the Warminster Community Park and 11 a.m. to noon Thursdays at the intersection of routes 611 and 412 in Ottsville.

This Thursday, the food distributed in Ottsville was handed out to many motorists who stayed in their vehicles, to try to protect both the recipients and Fresh Connect personnel from spread of the coronavirus.

Rolling Harvest takes fresh foods supplied by farmers and delivers them to Fresh Connect as well as to food pantries and charitable organizations so that people in need are provided with fresh produce along with the canned and dried foods normally found at pantries.

Cathy Snyder, founder and executive director of Rolling Harvest, has seen crunch times before, when food supplies for people in need ran scarce, but the coronavirus pandemic has made those days seem plentiful compared to now.

Even in a recession there aren’t so many people out of work as there have been over the past few weeks, with businesses shut down by government order. Normally grocery shelves would be full, so that people who are working could donate to help the unemployed. Right now, she said, “it’s very serious.”

“The food chain has broken down a little bit. … Grocery stores are having trouble providing for customers,” she said, and it isn’t harvest season, so there isn’t a plenitude of fresh fruits and vegetables available for farmers to donate their excess.

“To meet the rising demand, We need more money,” she said. “So many people need food who never thought they’d be asking for food.”

Last weekend, she helped to coordinate a food distribution in the New Hope-Lambertville area for the first time. More than 120 motorists showed up, along with 143 people on foot. She estimated that 8,300 pounds of food was distributed for more than 1,000 people, including more than 300 children. Immigrants are among the hardest hit.

It’s very clear there are people who are struggling, she said.

Rolling Harvest has to buy some of the products it normally provides to charitable pantries and organizations. But there have been some notable donations, Snyder said, including from Solebury Orchards, McCaffrey’s Food Markets and Fresh from Zone 7, a farm in Ringoes, New Jersey.

Rolling Harvest volunteers were happy last week to pick up more than 500 pounds of yogurt and cheeses from the Fulper Family Farmstead in Lambertville, New Jersey, for distribution to local pantries that could distribute it quickly.

Dana McKenna, a spokeswoman for Fulper Family Farmstead, said the Rolling Harvest took the dairy products and had plans to distribute it the next day. “We just wanted to do it because of the need,” she said. “We want to donate as much as we can.”

With the help of The Deck at the Bucks County Playhouse, the farm also donated another 180 pounds of cheese and more than 60 pounds of curd to the New Britain Baptist Church food larder.

Fulper Farm has been in operation for 100 years, and has about 100 Holstein cows on its 200-plus acres.

“It’s nice to know we’re putting food in the hands of people in need. It’s nice to be here for each other,” McKenna said.

The BCOC also accepts donations and recently held two food drives, which Cuozzo said, were highly successful.

“We’ve seen a tremendous outpouring of support,” he said. He hopes that between the food drives and the help of Rolling Harvest and Philabundance, the Fresh Connect program this week will go smooth logistically so that the families that need food this holiday weekend will be well supplied.

Posted on Generocity.org; Mar. 28, 2019 By Elina Tonkova / CONTRIBUTOR

From listening to community to trauma-informed approaches, nonprofits in the suburbs diversify strategies in their fight against hunger.

As we’ve explored this month, poverty is unexpectedly present in Philly’s suburban counties — and so is food insecurity, an invisible symptom of poverty.

Posted on The Intelligencer; Mar 27, 2019; By Phil Gianficaro, Columnist

The Fresh Connect Bucks County free farmers’ market proves invaluable for food insufficient residents.

From The Intelligencer – By Staff report. Posted Oct 2, 2018

The contribution will help the Bucks County nonprofit generate an additional 30,000 pounds of locally grown fresh produce for hungry neighbors throughout the area.

Penn Community Bank of Buckingham has donated $15,000 to Rolling Harvest Food Rescue to help deliver an additional 30,000 pounds of fresh, healthy produce into the hands of food-insecure people across the area.

From WHYY.org
Air Date: August 23, 2018 10:00 am
Guests: Cathy Snyder, Gail Koskela, Jess Niederer

Today, three different perspectives on farming in the greater Philadelphia area with Jess Niederer, Cathy Snyder, and Gail Koskela.

LISTEN HERE

“With even more local farmers and food producers on board for our 2018 harvest season from May through December, we are ensuring another year of tremendous growth and significant increases in both the number of people we are helping and the amount of produce we are sharing. We will soon reach our TWO MILLION-pound milestone of locally-grown fruits and vegetables, high-quality organic meats and a higher percentage of organic produce distributed to date. That’s more than eight million additional servings of super-healthy food on the plates of thousands of hungry families!

We continue to increase our impact and effectiveness through collaboration, projects and partnerships with other local social service agencies and food rescue organizations.

Turning food pantries into farmers markets remains the goal. With your continued help and support, we look forward to providing even more and impacting more lives for 2018 and beyond.” Cathy Snyder, Executive Director, Rolling Harvest Food Rescue