Food Sovereignty
COVID-19 revealed how precarious it can be to rely solely on the global food supply chain. But building a local food system is about more than food. It’s about battling economic and racial inequality, fighting climate change, and creating new community spaces that steward the land.
Join our CSA!
The ECP, based on Longhaul Farm in Garrison, NY, runs a CSA (community supported agriculture) through our Regenerative Communities Program. We offer a “Summer Share” that provides weekly produce from June through August, fresh meat and eggs, and income-based share pricing. Learn more here.
Regeneration Farms + public food gardens
The shock of COVID-19 revealed how socially and economically vulnerable many of us are in the current system. During the pandemic, homes around the country reporting that they “don’t have enough to eat” more than tripled, with Black and Latino families three times more likely than white families to report food insecurity. If this is a rehearsal for the impacts of future system shocks, we better wake up.
In Spring 2020 the ECP launched the Regenerative Communities (RC) project to demonstrate an innovative model for community development in the Hudson Valley. Through the RC project, we hire and train a class of Regenerators on Longhaul Farm and secure them land and start-up funding to develop a public food garden* and community hub in the Hudson Valley.
In our first four years, we trained 15 apprentices and worked in partnership with local governments to identify and license two underutilized public properties in Peekskill, NY and Newburgh, NY to develop into public food gardens* that provide fresh, nutrient-dense food and ecological education to local residents at no cost to them. We also partnered with Scenic Hudson and the Poughkeepsie Farm Project on a farm site at Pershing Avenue Park in Poughkeepsie. With only 2% of American farmlands managed by Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC), a core RC program goal is to increase farmland stewarded by local BIPOC leaders.
We offer part-time employment for folks who want to give back to the land and their community. No farming experience required; training will take place over one summer on Longhaul Farm and Regenerators will move on to steward one of our public food gardens* based in the City of Peekskill or City of Newburgh.
*Public food gardens are public spaces, open to all, where food is grown and distributed at no cost to people and where community thrives.
“Our farm frees us to live the way of life we want to. It gives us the pleasure of growing and eating our own food. It allows us both to raise our children and to help take care of my parents as they get older. It allows us to be in nature and directly feel the weather and changes between seasons. It makes us largely our own bosses, allowing us to control our time. It makes us more free.”
Campaign Toolkit
Regeneration sites
“This is so nice because a lot of people can’t afford fresh food, so it is great that they get to get it here. We are happy we get to share the neighborhood bounty.”
Community Food Program
We believe that access to food for all is a right and that one of the best ways to build community is around a shared meal. All Regeneration Farms are committed to distributing a significant portion of fresh, healthy food for free to food insecure families in their surrounding communities to establish neighborly solidarity.
The ECP, based on Longhaul Farm, provides fresh vegetables each week over the summer growing season to over fifty families through a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program in the Town of Philipstown area.
Beginning in 2020, we expanded growing space at our farm exclusively for raising produce for community donation. We developed strong distribution partnerships with Second Chance Foods, Inc., Putnam Valley Free Library, the Philipstown Food Pantry, and Fred’s Food Pantry in Peekskill, NY. Last season we distributed nearly 200 free shares of produce -- equivalent to over 1,000 meals -- to food insecure families.
The best part is that this small investment in community growing space will create permanent local food system infrastructure that will provide thousands of meals to future families in need.
food partners
