Ridgewood Farm Share will hold a bake sale in Ridgewood on Saturday, March 4, to raise funds to subsidize the cost of its summer community-supported agriculture (CSA) program, where residents of all incomes are connected with local farmers.
The bake sale will be held at Woodbine, the community hub at 595 Woodward Ave. in Ridgewood.
According to Woodbine volunteers Anna Gelb and Natalie Giamari, the bake sale was implemented to continue offering to-scale pricing for residents who can’t afford their CSA. This summer Norwich Meadow Farms in Chenango County will provide the food for the summer CSA.
“Woodbine has to handle all of the payment information, and they’re not able to offer sliding scale pricing,” Gelb said. “So we wanted to figure out a way to continue to offer sliding scale pricing for people in our neighborhood.”
Gelb also stated that much of the food in the CSA will come from the farm and is sent directly to residents looking to eat organic.
“There is limited access to organic vegetables within our neighborhood,” Gelb said. “There’s no Grow NYC Green Market, and there’s a smaller selection of organic groceries in the number of grocery stores here. And if it is organic, it’s not local. This is just us directly supporting our local food systems financially and economically.”
This fundraiser marks the first of its kind that Ridgewood Farm Share is doing to help its neighbors. There are 30 different bakers lined up, including some from local businesses like Mamayoshi Minimart, Cafe Plein Air, La Cantine, Archestratus in Greenpoint and She Wolf Bakery, a weekly provider to the Woodbine food pantry. There are also residents participating who were willing to bake for the cause.
“There’s something kind of like homey and connected about making a bake sale that’s fun to participate in,” Giamari said.” It’s a combination of local businesses but also just anybody. If you wanted to bake something, you could. It’s not specific to companies; it’s anybody interested in contributing.”
Residences looking to support the bake sale can stop by on March 4 anytime from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The group also wanted residents to know they can sign up to get food sent from the farm between the months of June to November; sign-ups are open until March 31.
