This past July, Cultivate Abundance passed an important milestone. We recorded over 100,000 lbs. of nutritious food grown, collected, and shared with the Immokalee farmworker community!
Here’s a 2018 photo of the first “official” Cultivate Abundance harvest of starfruit (maybe 20 lbs.).
The food was shared a day later with this young lady and dozens of other food pantry clients of our important Immokalee partner, Misión Peniel.
The collective 100,000 lbs. translate into almost 300,000 nutrient rich servings. Such fresh food is comprised of scores of fruit, vegetable, and herb varieties of cultural preference (i.e., leafy greens, legumes, bananas, cassava, taro, cilantro, squash, coconuts, mangos). This local abundance is shared each week with 250 to 500 Immokalee residents, most of whom are of Haitian, Guatemalan and Mexican heritage, and benefits up to 1000 people.
The Cultivate Abundance team grew, collected, and shared this food in solidarity with our farmworker neighbors who grow and harvest so much of America’s food, yet face food insecurity themselves.
We work in solidarity with over 50 partner gardeners and small farms in southwest Florida who are also concerned about such tragic and ironic farmworker insecurity. We serve in solidarity with Misión Peniel which has had a ministry presence in the Immokalee community since 2006. Our presence is maintained in solidarity with CBF congregations in Florida and beyond along with support from CBF Global Missions.
And, we do this in solidarity with each of you as your prayer and financial support makes these food security efforts possible.
Not only do we grow, collect, and share food, but we offer information via our blog along with technical resources. We also make garden visits and provide occasional trainings.
In addition to technical information, we share seeds and seedlings to make home and missional gardening possible, not only in southwest Florida but locations in other regions of the US and internationally.
100,000 lbs. of produce didn’t make food insecurity go away in Immokalee. We will continue to grow, collect, and share food as long as the need exists while also working to improve local access to other food security resources such as land for community gardening.
Thank you for making the first 100,000 lbs. possible!