You open the box and the first thing you notice is the range of colors before you—rich greens, bright yellow, cheerful orange, deep purple, all interspersed with specs of soft white.
Almost at the same time, you take in the vibrant smell of fresh—as in picked that day fresh—vegetables. You can’t wait to mix the two experiences together to create a delicious salad.
There is enough produce in the box for a week’s worth of healthy eating. It costs $30.
These aren’t the veggies from the local farmer’s market, though. This is FarmBox, and it’s the key component of an innovative approach to addressing the hunger crisis affecting the most vulnerable in Orange County.
Partners in Produce
To understand how something as simple as a box of fresh vegetables may be a big part of the solution to food insecurity in Orange County, it’s important to understand the backstory.
It all started last summer. Shari Battle, senior VP and Orange County market manager for Bank of America, introduced Harald Herrmann, CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County, to Erik Cutter, founder of Alegria Fresh at an event highlighting Bank of America’s pilot project with Alegria Fresh.
Second Harvest serves more than 400,000 hungry children, seniors and families a month, and is one of OC’s largest philanthropic groups, with nearly $10 million in annual revenue.
It provides food to hundreds of local charities and organizations who in turn distribute food to those in need at more than 350 locations in the county.
Alegria Fresh, based in Laguna Beach, is a pioneer in regenerative organic, zero-waste urban farming.
The organization designs, owns and maintains an above-ground growing system called SoxxBoxx. The SoxxBoxx Gro System consists of an elevated tray containing rows of polypropylene “socks” filled with rich soil. Plants grow inside the socks within ideal conditions that retain water and keep cool temperatures even on hot days.
The successful results of this system were unveiled last summer, thanks in part to a $20,000 grant Bank of America provided to Solutions for Urban Agriculture, a nonprofit organization that implements scalable agricultural systems.
Solutions for Urban Agriculture collaborated with Alegria Fresh, using their SoxxBoxx system, to create an above-ground microfarm at the Farm & Food Lab in the Orange County Great Park.
The project is touted as Southern California’s first zero-waste urban regenerative organic farm.
The system is easy to replicate, requiring only open space and SoxxBoxx, according to its backers.
Once Battle introduced Herrmann and Cutter, the two began to discuss how the system could help create a self-sufficient revenue cycle that would enable Second Harvest to provide more food to more people.
First of Kind Collaboration
Second Harvest and Alegria opted to create an urban farm in Second Harvest’s parking lot, using the SoxxBoxx Gro System. Bank of America provided a grant to Second Harvest Food Bank, as part of its pandemic relief commitment to local nonprofits, to build the Alegria SoxxBoxx Farm.
“We believe this is the freshest regenerative organic and nutrient-rich produce box in the marketplace,” Second Harvest said.
The farm grows about 25 to 30 different types of vegetables, herbs and flowers, including red-stemmed Swiss chard, kale in an array of greens and purples, and edible marigolds.
The produce from Second Harvest’s microfarm is available for purchase by the public. Fresh vegetables and produce are packed in boxes—the FarmBox—and also sold to the public. Each one contains approximately a week’s worth of fresh salad makings.
Customers can place orders on Second Harvest’s website for FarmBoxes that will include same-day harvested produce. Customers can purchase a single FarmBox or a subscription for a weekly FarmBox.
Each FarmBox is $30 and can be delivered for an additional $8 or picked up on Fridays between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Social Enterprise Success
The affiliation between Second Harvest and Alegria Fresh is a successful example of a public/private partnership. The model can be replicated in any urban space across the country to ultimately provide food to those in need.
Second Harvest’s portion of revenue from the sale of Alegria Fresh produce will be used to purchase up to 385,000 pounds annually of farm-direct vegetables and fruit through the California Association of Food Banks’ Farm to Family program. That’s the equivalent of 320,833 meals, officials say.
Every dollar of profit generated by a FarmBox sale translates into 7 pounds of produce.
“When people buy produce from Second Harvest, they can be assured that they are receiving Alegría Fresh’s delicious, pesticide-free, nutrient-dense produce,” Herrmann said. “They can also feel good knowing that for each FarmBox they order, Second Harvest will be able to purchase up to 75 pounds of food for the needy.”
Battle, whose introduction of Herrmann and Cutter initiated the whole program, added: “It’s exciting to see this work evolve so quickly. The current times have demonstrated the need for resilient and sustainable sources for both food and income. This collaboration with Alegría Fresh and Second Harvest is especially important as their vision and proof of concept becomes a replicable model.”
