CSA in NYC
Strategies to Increase Mixed-Income CSA Participation
Facilitator: Mark Dunlea, Hunger Action Network New York State (HANNYS)
Presenters: Lauren Melodia, Bed-Stuy CSA
How do you recruit low-income?
What most audience members want out of this workshop is to get better outreach and how to establish outreach to low-income.
Why CSA for low-income?
• CSA in its ideological form is meant to challenge the normal relationship to food and how it is valued through price. CSA communicates this in the way that it prices a share.
• That being said, "Low income" is a vague term as a whole, CSA can define it differently. The loose nature is great, but also good to think on the term given that it changes the dynamics of how a group wants to address attracting low income members.
Lauren:
• Low income was loosely defined as meaning people who couldn’t afford the price of the share at the initial price offered, or pay for the share at the beginning of the season in her CSA.
• Bed-Stuy CSA offered a two tier system with members making 40k or less pay the lower share price. However, due to the recession many people, including those earning more than 70k, consider themselves “low-income” and began asking about whether or not they could pay the lower price.
Mark:
• Flatbush Farm Share was an attempt to bring fresh local food through a CSA to the Flatbush area on behalf of Hunger Action Network New York State (HANNYS) along with New York City Coalition Against Hunger (NYCCAH) and Just Food.
• HANNYS works on food policy and community food security. Both ends of the injustice food system, production and consumption.
• HANNYS’s definition of low income: those who access food pantry and soup kitchens for their main source of food.
Is CSA a good way to address food security issues?
• Remains an ambiguous answer, pros and cons.
• One major issue is that most low-income CSA members were younger (25-30) people who had lower income. This missed their target audience (e.g. pantries/soup kitchen users).
• More recently, the CSA has begun looking at the income in relation to the number of people within the household.
Lauren:
• One of the larger farms upstate had a large sliding pay scale with the top of the scale paying for those paying less. However, with the financial crisis many have shifted to a lower part of the scale. This puts into the question the value of the CSA for the more affluent member s of the CSA, specifically do they see CSA as a luxury which lets them pay less, or a relationship to the food they purchase?
Audience member:
• Even with financial support it is often hard to get members to join the CSA as there is a perception that goes with it.
Outreach Strategies (Examples from presenter’s experiences)
Lauren speaks about her own CSA in Bed-Stuy:
• Bed-Stuy: Large geographically, with a large African American population, as well as public housing. The Bed-Stuy CSA started 5 years ago as a way to access to fresh and higher quality produce for community members.
• Also took note that half of Bed-Stuy households made $24,000 or less which meant that the CSA had to factor in how to be inclusive to lower income participants. It was also noted social programs were being utilized within the neighborhood already.
• The CSA created a two-tiered pricing program wherein members that made $24,000 or less paid half the share price ($250) with the other members paying a higher rate to subsidize lower share price. The CSA also partnered with a non-profit to allow the CSA to accept food stamps as a payment method.
• The CSA struggled to get shares for the first two years, but began selling out during the third year. Though it seemed that the increase in members tended to skew towards higher socio-economic members (e.g. white middle-high income earners).
• When outreach began it was focused on recruiting and retaining members. Used several different methods at different sites:
• Cooking demonstrations at housing developments
• Collaborated with nurses at medical centers in diabetes management.
• "Veggie checks": Bought two shares with grant, shared with two housing developments. Also had a weekly CSA share for families within the housing development, way to show box to families directly. Did health center drop-in for outreach. Section 8, regular community dinner for that as well. The grant allowed for additional support demos. Full year commitment was still a barrier to some.
Audience member:
• An audience member commented on the difficulty of starting a new CSA in Hunt’s Point where everyone was of lower income. She found that not only was there the financial difficulty, but also a cultural one in which members didn’t understand that vegetables could come directly from the farm and that she herself was viewed as a “hippie”. She was wondering how do you relay the deeper message underlying CSA?
Lauren:
• While everyone agrees on the healthiness of vegetables, most value it less than other components of everyday life (e.g. homework for kids, fresh v. pre-package).
• Education is key in convincing people that CSA works, and moreover it is a long term project. You won’t convince many to join in your first go around, much less retain those you do get. Planning outreach events during the season is helpful as it does give people interactions with the vegetables they’ll be receiving.
Mark:
• One important idea to remember when reaching out is to get community member(s) to own the project. Outreach with flyers alone doesn't work. Convincing key community members/leaders is one effective way to begin this process given they know the community better.
Mark’s CSA used three ways to attract members with a base of funding from grants:
Subsidy
• Using funding they subsidized up to 40% of all low income shares. This undercut the development of core group as the CSAs were started by staff become too dependent on the staff to run it. (For example, Flatbush CSA was more sustainable due to a core group, the Harlem CSA less so because of the lack of a core group.) As a result this isn’t a sustainable long term model for CSA.
• Long term solutions include: finding a community partner to help with funding (e.g. church, synagogue), building core membership, and being more aware of the community members needs.
• Found that the subsidy won't attract members in itself.
• Some members asked why pay when I get fresh vegetables from food bank/pantries? Important to consider where the CSA is providing produce.
• Another issue is the location of the drop-off site; putting a drop off site in middle is easier for low income members to travel to. Yet this also found resistance with higher income members.
Other solutions:
o food stamps
o revolving loan funds
Q & A
Q: Has anyone used schools as an outreach tool? And have they had any success in doing so?
• PTAs are a possible source of outreach coordination.
• Bronx CSA had success with parent coordinators. Kids would bring home the info to parents.
Mark:
o First year was hard to do outreach; when weekly distribution happened, many community members asked what the CSA process was like at the drop-off site.
Q: One challenge of CSA is that there is no control over vegetable kind and amount. How do you acclimate low-income members to this aspect of CSAs?
Lauren:
• Often the variety of vegetables can be a challenge; some members may like one kind versus another (this goes for all CSA members really). Working with the farmer on which vegetables to provide and when is certainly a way to overcome this issue. (This is key as most farmers aren’t there to hand out the vegetables.)
• A box for trading out also helps in balancing out one way of leveling out any vegetable preference.
Mark:
• The broader scope of the CSA (e.g. connecting consumers and farmers through this relationship) is not always on members’ radar. Part of the goal of the CSA should also be to emphasize this aspect with events like farm trips to show where the food is being produced.
Audience member:
• Wanting to start her own CSA, one issue is not only attracting members, but also the fact that all community members are low income. Fundraising is another issue for her to deal with.
• On the note of outreach, New York Department of Education has issues with using the school as a place for outreach.
• Based on her own experience, getting to know the community you are doing outreach to is important. For example, her community is 70% Latino, and they are unfamiliar with some of the vegetables provided (and vice versa).
• Also, she would suggest that they lower income members get a view of the production side before signing up to see how everything connects. (Especially given that most farmers themselves don’t make much income.)
Audience member:
• Agrees that schools may not always want you there. Also are the materials appropriate for outreach? The organizational view also key to targeting/tailoring to the group, and knowing who you are speaking.
Q: What is the retention rate for your Bed-Stuy CSA? Can food stamps be used?
Lauren:
• Food stamps can be used, the Just Food CSA toolkit can provide a reference for how to do this. The main issue is food stamps can't be used to purchase food in the future.
• The CSA has a revolving loan fund where they take out money to pay for food either on food stamps or in the future, and is later reimbursed through the food stamps.
• As for retention, the Bed-Stuy CSA has never kept track of those statistics. It is a challenge to keep low income with SNAP (food stamps) because they can walk away at anytime because of their flexible pay plan. (SNAP members usually pay on a per week basis). The CSA tries to be more flexible with low income members as a result. (e.g. holding shares that can’t be picked up immediately, or even delivering them.)
• On another note one idea to solve the problem of too much food/variety? A CSA Iron Chef event.
• Community dinners great way of listening to community members and are less formal than chef demo. Plus you get to interact with the community members themselves more.
Audience member:
o Hands on demonstrations work for attracting community members as they puts the food upfront. People also must be aware of cultural bias that might hinder. For example meatless Mondays were used at one pantry/soup kitchen. Everyone hated it, but they continued to do it though now they never call it that nor even suggest that it is vegetarian on Monday.
Q: How long does application for food stamps take? Do other programs (e.g. WIC & FMNP) also work with CSA?
Lauren:
o New York State Dept. of Agriculture and Markets helped with the application process. Other programs such as WIC may already be accepted by farmers. Farmers usually accept so the process can happen without filling out additional paper work.
Q: Does Bed-Stuy CSA have a committee for low-income outreach?
Lauren:
o Yes there is a group that handles outreach. They also have facilitated in documenting outreach process to keep consistency for CSA and sustainability of it.
Mark:
o Partner groups, as mentioned before, can also assist in continuing outreach.
Q: Could you speak about Bed-Stuy CSA’s community dinners and how one could go about putting these on?
Lauren:
o The CSA had several community dinners within the housing developments, and found one that had good attendance. The event is a potluck style event, though with the option that some could cook at the event and not everyone had to bring something. The CSA also solicited donations from Trader Joe’s in addition to the vegetables from the CSA. One major success of the community dinner was it attracted regular attendance and gave some sense of who was in the neighborhood.
Q: Who did you partner with to be able to do the community dinners at the housing developments?
Lauren:
o The CSA contacted the tenant association for the housing developments—though some community members in other housing developments may have had a negative experience in the past. It benefited the tenant association as it allowed them to recruit members as well.
