Blog Post

Chris Roppolo

Professor Santos
ENGL 102-042
30 March 2018

           

            Today in class, we read an article titled Healthy Futures Farm’s Core Mission:

Making Healthy, Local Produce Affordable and Accessible. In the article, it states that “1 in 5 children in New Bedford and Fall River go to bed hungry every day”. That fact is something that I did not know about those towns, which is only about a half hour/forty-five minute drive from me that I used to visit multiple times a year during high school for sporting events that I participated in. to combat the hunger issue in the two towns, Averyl Andrade and her husband Nathan started healthy Futures Farm during springtime of 2015. Together, they adopted clean farming practices to try to grow the healthiest produce that they can by not using any chemicals such as pesticides, herbicides, and synthetic fertilizers on their crops.

            Averyl and Nathan sell their produce in farmer’s markets in some of the “underserved” areas. They happily take WIC vouchers and food stamps as payments and it usually ends up being their customers most used payment methods. Averyl and her husband are constantly donating to their local food pantries as well as giving some to the Buttonwood Park Zoo to feed to their animals.

            I think that farm fresh produce is a lot better and at a higher quality than the produce that we are able to get at the grocery stores. The fact that Averyl and Nathen resists the use of chemicals and synthetic fertilizers in their farm brings an added health benefit to their crops, and I would love to be able to take a trip down there to pick up some of their produce. I hope to mimic some of their farming styles in my own garden so that I can have fresh fruits and vegetables free of any pesticides or other harmful chemicals.