Mobile food pantry brings fresh produce to migrant workers

MONITOR – Last year, Upper Valley MEND’s food programs took a significant step in expanding its impact by adding a Mobile Food Pantry to its services. Now, it's providing fresh produce to migrant worker camps across the valley.

“It's one of my favorite programs. You can just feel the appreciation and gratitude from folks that we’re just, you know, giving free produce to. And they're always so thankful and surprised it's free,” said Food Programs Manager Rachel Bishop.

For years, Upper Valley MEND’s gleaning program has harvested surplus produce from local farms for the Community Cupboard food pantry. In recent years, the program received a refrigerated Sprinter van through a grant from the Washington State Department of Agriculture, allowing it to mobilize its pantry.

“We are often gleaning so much produce it's too much to give away just at the Community Cupboard,” said Bishop. “So with the refrigerated van, we created this new program called the Mobile Produce Pantry.”

Last year, the mobile pantry served 742 people and distributed over 3,400 pounds of produce. It partnered with a series of organizations across the valley to distribute produce, such as Small Miracles and CAFÉ. 

However, its largest partner was Columbia Valley Community Health (CVCH), serving migrant worker camps. From about May to October, CVCH makes rotational visits to approximately 20 camps housing seasonal agricultural workers, or H-2A workers, providing medical and dental care out of a mobile clinic.

“I invite other community partners to attend as well, because a lot of times maybe not every one of the 200 H-2A workers that are in one camp, maybe they all don't need just medical or dental services, but maybe they could really benefit from getting free food, or from getting other community resources,” said CVCH Outreach Coordinator Bryan Cadena.

Last year, the mobile pantry served 376 workers and distributed nearly 2,000 pounds of produce. 

“Locally grown organic produce is one of the more expensive things you can buy at a grocery store, so [we’re] being able to provide that to people who definitely wouldn't have access otherwise,” said Bishop.

At the site, the mobile pantry mimics a farmers market setup, placing the produce in nice baskets with signage, to make people feel welcome. UV MEND provides grocery bags, and people are able to take as much as they want.

“We try and make sure that we're bringing, if it's available, culturally important produce to the people, so that they're actually used when they're cooking. So for a lot of the migrant camps, we're trying to bring onions, and cilantro, and tomatoes, fruit, peppers, zucchini, potatoes, all that kind of stuff,” said Bishop.

In situations where the gleaning program has harvested a large amount of an unpopular vegetable, the pantry will try to provide a familiar recipe. For kale, UV MEND staff member Natalie Valdez was able to provide a kale-chimichurri recipe in both Spanish and English for people to take home.

“[For] a lot of people here, Spanish is their main language and you know, you really want to be able to communicate with them and make them feel more comfortable,” said Valdez.

Due to seasonal challenges this year, UV MEND has had less produce to glean, causing it to scale back its mobile pantry. Because of this, it’s focusing on migrant camps when it has produce available. Fortunately, the program is able to supplement through its Farm to Food Pantry program with the state, in which it can buy produce from local farmers.

Taylor Caldwell: 509-433-7276 or taylor@ward.media