Seasonal local produce — planning
now for fresh summer eating
BY TEQUILA MINSKY
Absorbing Vitamin D sunrays
this past mid-March Sunday,
Rainer Keller tabled
outside M’Finda Kalunga Community
Garden on Rivington Street.
While spring and summer are
around the corner, those of us
rooted here in New York may still
venture not far. That’s why it’s time
to signup with your local Community
Supported Agriculture (CSA).
Just outside the garden’s fence, a
sandwich board next to Keller’s table
read: Stanton Street CSA—Support
Local Farms—22 Weeks-Organic
Vegetables—SIGN UP NOW. Keller
was dispensing info on the Stanton
Street CSA (community supported
agriculture).
Keller’s been a member since this
CSA’s inception 2005.
Exactly what is a C.S.A.? Arrangements
between communities
and local farmers constitute a CSA.
Community members purchase a
share of vegetables from a regional
The Stanton Street CSA signed up participants in the season
food distribution at M’Finda Kalunga Community Garden on
Rivington Street.
farm for a full growing season. The
Stanton Street CSA starts in June
and lasts through November.
At a local distribution site,
weekly—here, it’s the M’Finda
Kalunga Community Garden on
PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
Rivington—members pick up
freshly picked seasonal vegetables
on Thursdays, between 5:30 AND
7:30 p.m. Keller explained that this
CSA used to be on Stanton Street,
thus the name, but now its based at
this community garden. It numbers
100-some members.
With varying quantities during
the 22 weeks, starting and ending
with smaller share sizes, the highseason
share is substantial. “We can
match people up who want to split a
share,” says Irit Houvras, responding
to the inquiry that a share might be
too much for a single person.
With this CSA, “add-ons”, additional
charges to the share, can
include eggs and fruits.
Most of the produce comes from
the Windflower Farm, just north of
Albany, that practices environmentally
sustainable agriculture. The
eggs and stone fruits come from
nearby farm neighbors. Windflower
Farm provides produce for 13 CSAs
within the City.
Farmers are secure in their
season’s funding with guaranteed
customers in this win-win local food
system, which provides reasonably
priced, mostly organic, fresh seasonal
food to CSA members. “It’s less
than the farmer’s market,” piped up
Houvras, adding , “It changes what
you eat and how you eat.”
Stanton Street CSA follows
the original model—only locally
grown items, no middle producer
or distributor. For this CSA, the
early bird sign-up, before March
28, is $585— $26.80 a week; the
late sign-up, before May 22, is $640,
$29.10, a week. Fruit and egg shares
are additional.
The food justice organization Just
Food lists over 125 New York City
CSAs in its network (www.justfood.
org/value-chain-map) among the
hundreds of City CSAs, based in
gardens, churches, organization offices
and community centers.
“We will be hosting a Zoom Q&A,
Saturday, March 27, at 10 a.m., so
interested prospective members can
pick our brains,” says Stanton Street
CSA member Julia. “And maybe even
meet Farmer Ted, if we can coax him
off the fields and onto Zoom!”
Email stantonstreetcsa@gmail.com
for the invite link in attending this info
session (and maybe meet the farmer).
Workers in Manhattan go on
hunger strike for more state aid
BY DEAN MOSES
Workers excluded from the state’s
pandemic relief programs are
demanding funding from Albany
— and going on a hunger strike to bring attention
to their cause.
“Fast for the Forgotten” is an ongoing
protest that began Tuesday in front of the
Church of the Ascension for the workers
who say have been overlooked in federal relief
funding. These overlooked individuals — who
are mostly immigrants and undocumented —
are demanding $3.5 billion in aid be added
to the next New York State budget deadline
on April 1 to provide retroactive, direct cash
assistance to those who did not receive any
government help.
The cause is so important that the protesters
are willing to put their own health at risk
by refusing to eat until state lawmakers hear
their cry and provide relief.
Prior to the hunger strike commencing,
a press conference was held on the steps of
the Cathedral of St. John the Divine at 1047
Demonstrators starting the hunger strike outside the Cathedral of St. John
the Divine on March 16, 2021.
Amsterdam Ave. There, workers and community
leaders shared stories explaining how they
have fallen through the cracks of pandemic
aid without receiving unemployment benefits,
stimulus checks, or other government assistance
at all within the past last year.
According to Make the Road NY — an
organization representing working-class and
PHOTO BY DEAN MOSES
immigrant people — thousands of undocumented
workers in New York state did not
receive any federal or state government assistance
during the pandemic.
“We have farm workers, service workers,
street vendors, recently incarcerated people
as the backbone of our economy. We are here
today because it has been more than 300 days
with zero dollars in government support for
excluded essential workers,” said Bianca
Guerrero, coordinator of the Fund Excluded
Workers campaign.
She highlighted the many undocumented
workers who are facing mountains of debt and
are unable to afford their rent let alone buy
food. She shared that state leaders have put
forward approximately $2.1 billion for these
workers, but activists are saying this is a start,
but it is still not enough.
“We are fighting for $3.5 billion to make
sure excluded workers get benefits on par with
other New Yorkers,” Guerrero added.
One by one, speakers revealed the ways
they have been left behind in government
aid despite working through the entirety
of the COVID-19 pandemic. To this day
construction workers, food vendors, and
others continue to struggle to make ends
meet.
The conference concluded with strikers
entering vehicles and driving to the Church of
the Ascension, at 10th Street and 5th Avenue
in the Village, where they will be participating
in the “Fast for the Forgotten” before moving
on to Judson Memorial Church at 55 Washington
Square on March 19.
When we asked one worker how long they
are prepared to starve themselves for, the man
replied: “As long as it takes.
4 March 18, 2021 Schneps Media
link
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