CCBC Catonsville, Hungry Harvest partner to distribute surplus food
Reduced-price produce offered to students, staff
Organizers of a new program at the Community College of Baltimore County’s Catonsville campus offering reduced-cost produce to students, faculty and staff expected to sell about 25 bags at its kickoff event this past week.
Instead, 50 bags were snapped up, each with items such as organic blackberries, apples, a pound of organic Brussels sprouts and plums.
In two hours, “we basically were sold out,” said Heather Griner, director of college and community outreach services at CCBC.
The new program, called “Produce in a SNAP,” is a partnership between CCBC and Hungry Harvest, an organization that seeks to reduce food waste. Hungry Harvest will set up each Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in front of the Student Services Building. The program will run to November, then take a hiatus until February.
The bags cost $7 each, and customers can use cash, credit or EBT — the electronic benefit transfer system for qualifying customers using assistance. The organization does not ask for identification or proof of income, organizers said.
“Students are very reluctant to come forward when they need assistance,” Griner Veggies, fruit, bread and other items for are offered for sale at $7 a bag through CCBC Catonsville’s new campus program, “Produce in a SNAP.” said.
CCBC opened a food pantry on its Catonsville campus in 2015 as part of its efforts to combat food insecurities at the school, Griner said. During the 2017-2018 academic year, 794 students used the Catonsville food pantry in a total 2,268 visits, she said.
About one-third of the food produced in the United States that is fit for human consumption goes to waste each year, according to federal government estimates. In Maryland, one in nine individuals are estimated to be food insecure, meaning they lack reliable access to quality and affordable food.
Food that’s produced in the U.S. that doesn’t make it to market is often sent to landfills, where it decomposes and produces methane. Only 5.3 percent of food waste is diverted from landfills in the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Will McCabe, food access manager for Baltimore-based Hungry Harvest, said the produce bags are at least 50 percent cheaper than what the items would cost at a grocery store. Hungry Harvest purchases food from suppliers that would not otherwise make it to market.
Sometimes that’s because the produce is “ugly,” but usually it’s because of a surplus in production, McCabe said.
“I curated the bags this week to be especially fruitful, no pun intended. It was a lot of high-value product; I say this bag probably would have been $20-plus if you compared it to grocery stores,” McCabe said.
Hungry Harvest also offers a fooddelivery service by subscription.
Initially, CCBC told Hungry Harvest to prepare for about 25 individuals to purchase produce bags. But the produce, sold during an activities fair for students returning to campus this past week was more in demand than anticipated.
“There are a lot of people who are on the fringe. We want to make sure we’re serving people who are barely missing qualifying for benefits,” McCabe said.
Griner said that any produce leftover from the weekly distributions will be donated to a local shelter.
Griner said she hopes to expand the market to the other CCBC campuses, though she did not have a projected timeline for when that might happen.
“It’s not just for the students [but for] faculty and staff,” Griner said, “[Our] main goal is to help get fresh fruits and vegetables to their families.”