Programs Set Up By Sustainable Food Center - TexasRealFood
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Sustainable food center is a pillar of the farming community in Texas, but it’s also much more than that. It’s also an important part of the community for everyone who’s looking for healthy and eco-friendly food in Texas, since providing it is their mission.
It’s also home to many charitable and humanitarian programs that you should be aware of as a farmer and as a consumer since the two are interlinked. You don’t need to support all of these programs directly but you should be aware of them and their importance.
What Is Sustainable Food Center?
First of all you should know what Sustainable Food Center is in itself. Most of those who work in the industry are already aware of it since it’s a long lasting and rather impactful organization. It was started under this name in 1993 but it has its roots in 1975 and the communal garden project.
Their vision is of the Texas that still works in agriculture and in growing food, but does that in a way that’s sustainable and eco-friendly. The center creates and promotes policy solutions towards this goal.
Grow Local
Grow local is a program set up by the center that has a goal of making the food production as local as it can be. That means that it removes the barriers for gardeners by providing them with the resources they need to start using their garden in a profitable way. It also provides classes on community food gardens since they are such an important food source.
Teaching gardening is both practical since it needs to be in order to be useful, but it also goes in details in the environmental impact of local gardening and eco-friendly agriculture as a whole.
Farm Direct
Farm direct is another program established by Sustainable Food Center with similar principles but different actors in mind. The goal of the program is to connect farmers with those who need their products directly and thus provide access to healthy and eco-friendly food right away.
At this time, the program has connected eco-friendly farmers with schools, worksites, and foodservice operations. It also tries to bring healthy food to the shoppers directly through a network of farmers markets that cares about the standards in regards to eco-friendly food production. “Fresh for less” mobile markets are an especially big part of this project since they bring healthy food to those who need it the most.
The Happy Kitchen
The happy kitchen also known as La Cocina Alegre is a cooking school that focused on using healthy and eco-friendly ingredients to make your food. It’s based on the recipe book that was developed by the same organization, but it allows for creativity that’s so important in cooking.
There are both private and public cooking classes and that a course lasts for six weeks. It’s especially important to note that this program focuses on minority communities and on those who don’t have the proper knowledge of nutritional concerns.
Sustainable Food Center Farmers Market
SFC has its own farmers market that’s based on the principle that we have outlined before. The market features more than 100 vendors. It’s open every Saturday from 9AM to 1PM and it’s located on Republic Square in Downtown Austin and the Toney Burger Center in Sunset Valley.
The market is also open to accepting new vendors that sell both fresh produce and dairies. The vendors however need to comply with the rules that the market has set for them in terms of how their produce is made.
Double Up Food Bucks
Sustainable Food Center has a policy that healthy food should be for everyone. Double up on the food bucks is a program with that goal in mind and it’s focused on helping those who use SNAP to purchase their food. The program works simply – those who have SNAP coupons up to 30 $ in value can double those amounts in the SFC market.
This applies to other programs for nutritional assistance other than SNAP and the details of it could be found on SFC website with explanation in English, Spanish and Arabic since it’s those minority communities that need the help the most.
Conclusion
Sustainable food center is an NGO that helps food growers and food sellers in Texas. They have a broad vision of creating eco-friendly agriculture in Texas and beyond. This is done through a variety of different programs and policies. It’s important to be aware of these as a buyer and as a farmer since those are the ways you can help the most.
The programs help farms, vendors, and bring their produce to the communities and institutions that need them the most. They also provide education for those who work in these areas in terms of environmental impact.
