The day that I met Alanna Kieffer was spectacularly sunny with a gentle saline breeze—a rarity on the rainy Oregon coast. It was my first visit to Cannon Beach, but Kieffer appeared to be perfectly at home as she led me across the pale, soft sand to a cluster of craggy, dark rocks at the […] The post The Bounty Between the Tides appeared first on Modern Farmer ..read more

Every morning, Amish farmer Amos Miller, who lives on 75 acres of land in Lancaster County, PA., gets up early to milk 43 Jersey cows. He also raises beef cattle and 150 pigs that dine on whey and organic oats, as well as chickens that peck for insects among the greenery. His sons are the […] The post Got Raw Milk? appeared first on Modern Farmer ..read more

Out of respect for privacy, Modern Farmer is withholding the last names of several users of the community fridge.  In a span of less than 10 minutes, no fewer than five people open the doors of the bright yellow community fridge and pantry just outside the Medlock Park neighborhood in Decatur, Georgia. Most come here searching for fresh food and produce, or personal products such as toothpaste or diapers, donated by the community. “I come here about three times a week,” says Anne. She depends on the food, especially fresh produce, to supplement her diet. “If it wasn’t for this fridge, I d ..read more

Hunger and food insecurity exist in every community in the US. Around 12.8 percent of US households experienced food insecurity in 2022.  That’s 17 million households experiencing food insecurity in a country that throws out more food than any other country in the world—120 billion pounds every year, equivalent to almost 40 percent of the entire US food supply. That’s 325 pounds of wasted food per person. In other words, no one in the US should be going hungry. There is plenty of food to go around. It’s just a matter of getting it to hungry people before it gets to the dump to rot and, in ..read more

This photo essay is part of our series on Community Fridges. Photography by Emma Kazaryan. In February 2020, Thadeaus Umpster opened his first community fridge—right in front of the building where he lives in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn. Since then, he’s helped many others find fridges and organize donations. He calls it an an anarchist network of community fridges and mutual aid. These fridges address twin problems—hunger and waste—but Thadeaus says they can be more than that. They are a place where neighbors get to know each other and community bonds are formed. The day starts like many—with an almos ..read more

When Yvonne Martinez shops for her weekly allotment of food from the Skyview Elementary and Middle School Pantry in Anaheim, California, her box isn’t filled with nearly expired canned goods. Instead, it’s brimming with in-season fruits and vegetables that were harvested less than 25 miles away.  The selection has not only introduced Martinez to new ingredients, such as eggplant, but she’s learned to cook with them thanks to her children, who receive free classes through their school. “They make broccoli soup. They like cauliflower,” she says. “You don’t think of kids liking Brussels spro ..read more

So, you want to get involved in a community fridge, but you’re not sure where to start. You’ve come to the right place. A volunteer helps distribute food. Photography by Emma Kazaryan. Finding a fridge You can search for a fridge in your neighborhood with databases like this one from Freedge. You might have luck finding one near you or a fridge to visit on your next vacation. You can also search for community fridges in your area on platforms such as Instagram, where many groups stay active. And some groups, like in New York, also share maps of their specific city.  Once you’ve found a ..read more

Thadeaus Umpster hates waste. “There’s so much labor and effort that goes into growing and making good, healthy food, and a huge percentage of it is wasted every day,” he says . “That hurts me at the soul level.” Preventing waste is one of the main motivations that drives Umpster and has been for the almost 30 years he’s been organizing in his Brooklyn neighborhoods, but it’s not his only one.  Umpster knows what it’s like to be hungry. As a teenager, he began volunteering with Food Not Bombs, a mutual-aid group dedicated to feeding folks in his community. But when his shift was over, he ..read more

This story was produced by Grist and co-published with Modern Farmer. Standing knee-deep in an emerald expanse, a row of trees offering respite from the sweltering heat, Rosa Morales diligently relocates chipilín, a Central American legume, from one bed of soil to another. The 34-year-old has been coming to the Campesinos’ Garden run by the Farmworker Association of Florida in Apopka for the last six months, taking home a bit of produce each time she visits. The small plot that hugs a soccer field and community center is an increasingly vital source of food to feed her family.  It also ma ..read more

This article is part of a partnership between The Jersey Bee and Next City exploring segregation in Essex County, New Jersey, and the solutions to building a more just and equitable county and state. In Montclair’s Third Ward is a tiny farm with big community value. In the summertime, Montclair Community Farms transforms its less-than-10,000-square-foot lot into a space with something for everyone: a garden education program for children, a job training site for teens, and a pop-up produce market for Essex County residents. “People really love being here,” said Lana Mustafa, executiv ..read more