FARMINGTON — A meeting to discuss a new community garden and ideas to address a lack of food for some will be held at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at Knowlton Corner Farm, 341 Knowlton Corner Road.
Farm owner Arleen Masselli has been looking at food insecurity in the area and wants to brainstorm ways to address the issue.
“Food pantries are a wonderful resource but face challenges with providing not only enough food for their communities, but often face a lack of fresh & healthy options,” she said. “A lot of people don’t qualify for food pantries and some are too embarrassed to go.”
Masselli said another issue is that food pantries often have a surplus of items such as breads, fruits or vegetables that can’t be distributed to clients for various reasons.
“The food pantry had lots of hard bread that couldn’t be given out. I turned it into Italian bread crumbs and croutons,” she said. “Similarly, damaged tomatoes could be made into tomato sauce.”
Masselli is looking to create a new community garden program and is considering several options to help the food insecure. Ideas include:
- A bartering system where people volunteer in exchange for produce.
- Canning, freezing or other means of preserving surplus produce for year-round availability.
- Repurposing produce that can’t be used as is.
Anyone with gardening experience and/or food preservation knowledge and a willingness to help is invited to attend. Masselli asks that people RSVP by calling 778-6520, so she will know how many to expect.
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