Meet Joey Smith, the farmer and owner of Let’s Go Farm, educator, and advocate for local organic food. Since 2011, he has been growing top quality organic vegetables, fruit, and flowers and teaches the next generation of organic farmers at Santa Rosa Junior College and Shone Farm. Joey is a person walking his talk, inspiring students and the greater community to eat organic locally grown produce.
Joey’s family are active members at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation, Santa Rosa (UUCSR), a congregation with a mission to celebrate life, empower people, care for one another, and help build a better world. They believe that engagement with a religious community can transform lives. Joey has taken these principles to heart and is offering a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) to the congregation members for the first time this season.
The Interfaith Sustainable Food Collaborative and Joey connected at a Farmers Guild event last year. When we shared with him that he could offer his CSA boxes at ½ price for low income people utilizing CalFresh, Joey was excited. Joey said, “for years, I have been dismayed to see that the CSA model (where I get money up front, when I need it, but before harvest) has been largely inaccessible to people who don’t make a lot of money. That’s why it was so refreshing to see this grant! It allows me to charge the price that I need to continue being able to grow organically on a 1.4 acre plot of land, while breaking down [accessibility] barriers to that food. I’d like to see this model spread, because everyone deserves access to ecologically grown, culturally appropriate food.”
As a person committed to food justice, Joey did not shy away from logistics, coordinating with the UUCSR Board and other congregation members to complete necessary paperwork needed to utilize incentive money that pays for the other half of the CSA box. “I am one of those farmers who puts a lot of value on knowing my customer. Knowing who they are gives me a catalyst for working through heat waves and hail storms to make sure I’m putting the best food on their plates. I enjoy sharing joys and sorrows with them, and so to be able to do so in a place of worship and sanctuary, in 2017, feels really good to me”, said Joey.
Let’s Go Farm is currently serving 12 CSA members at UUCSR, which includes CalFresh participants benefiting from the incentive program to stretch their food dollars. The Collaborative is in partnership with UUCSR and has committed $2,400 towards matching the cost of CSA boxes for low-income households. For other congregations interested in this program, contact the Interfaith Sustainable Food Collaborative office.