Zenger Farm Begins Pilot CSA for Food Stamp Users

Zenger Farm in Powellhurst-Gilbert

Zenger Farm, an urban farm in the Powellhurst-Gilbert neighborhood that grows food and offers experiences to young people interested in farming, is beginning a new pilot community-supported agriculture (CSA) program that will accept food stamps and allow lower-income people to make weekly payments rather than paying upfront.

It is the first CSA to accept food stamps in the city.

“It’s a really positive step,” says Cora Potter, the chair of the Lents Urban Renewal Advisory Committee. “There are a lot of people who could use something like this. We probably need 20 of those CSAs.”

Zenger Farm’s executive director, Jill Kuehler, says the new CSA will help Zenger Farm reach its goal of contributing to food security and accessibility in east Portland.

“There aren’t many full-service grocery stores in Lents,” she says, “and definitely not a lot of access to... locally grown, healthy, fresh food that is affordable as well.”

Two acres of Furey Field, land immediately adjacent to Zenger Farm currently being turned into a community garden, are being used for the CSA.

Kuehler says Zenger Farm is currently testing and prepping the soil. The plan is to grow corn, squash and garlic on the property, although other vegetables grown on Zenger Farm will supplement the vegetables people receive through the CSA.

Furey Field in the Powellhurst-Gilbert neighborhood.

In 2004, Zenger Farm conducted an assessment of food security in Lents and found that 23 percent of residents felt insecure in regards to obtaining food. The Lents International Farmers’ Market was created in response, and Kuehler says the CSA is the next step.

The new CSA will have 20 shares. Ten shares will be bought for the normal price; ten are reserved for food stamp recipients, two of whom will receive partial scholarships.

She says the 20 shares were taken within one week. “There is an obvious need in the community for this effort,” she says.

Kuehler hopes to increase the CSA shares to 50 next year and 70 the next.

Customers will make weekly payments. Typically, CSA members will pay upfront to receive produce weekly for up to 35 weeks. “That is a big barrier for a low-income person,” Kuehler says.

There are other challenges.

“[East Portland residents are] not necessarily a group of folks who understand the CSA model,” Kuehler says.

Some, she says, may not know how to prepare the food in their box. For that reason, Zenger Farm will begin to offer simple cooking lessons each week.

Kuehler hopes the lessons will help reduce the barriers to cooking and eating fresh food. Other CSAs, she says, have tried to work with food stamp recipients but found that they leave the program. She also says the CSA may encourage farmers to learn how to accept food stamps by getting the card-reading machines and negotiating the program.

“It’s going to be great to demonstrate that it really can work,” Potter says. She says there are many large, empty lots in the Powellhurst-Gilbert neighborhood that could be used for community gardens and small plot farming. “I hope it bleeds over, not just to Lents, but further east,” she says.

Oregon has been cited as the second hungriest state in the nation. The Oregon Food Bank has distributed 130,000 more food boxes than it did before the recession started in late 2009, meaning demand has increased 17 percent. More than 240,000 people per month ate meals from emergency food boxes, compared to nearly 200,000 in 2007-08.