Archive: Around Town

Single-parent families from Tompkins County will receive weekly bushels of fresh produce this summer in a program that will offer culinary support for parents pressed for time to cook.

Healthy Food for All, a nonprofit that makes fresh produce accessible to low-income families, will provide partial and full subsidies for single parents who want to receive shares from a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program at one of ten farms in Tompkins County. The CSA typically cost $600 for the season, which runs from June to November.

While the nonprofit has provided CSA shares to low-income families for more than a decade, the program will feature a new service for single parents with young children: a trained chef who will offer food-prep assistance as well as free cooking classes, said Liz Karabinakis, director of Healthy Food for All.

Healthy Food for All began developing a program for single parents in 2016, after Karabinakis attended a gathering on women and poverty, organized by Community Foundation of Tompkins County's Women's Fund. At the gathering, Karabinakis said she was struck by the dire needs of single mothers with young children in Tompkins County.

A Tompkins County Community Health Assessment presented at the meeting showed that 100 percent of single-mother families with children under age 5 live in poverty in the City of Ithaca and in the Town of Groton. The overall poverty rate for single women with children under 5 in Tompkins County is 58 percent.

"After hearing the statistics and the stories of the women, I felt compelled to do something," Karabinakis said. "I made a pledge on behalf of Healthy Food for All farmers that we would provide food-insecure single-parent families with a CSA share of fresh produce for whatever price they could afford."

In the summer of 2016, the nonprofit provided CSA shares to 25 single parents. Last year, the number grew to nearly 50 and more are expected to sign up this season. Karabinakis said she would not have created the program for single-parent families if she had not attended Community Foundation's gathering on women and poverty. "The Community Foundation's support extends well beyond their financial programs and grants," she said. "They play a much greater role in supporting our community, and this is one example."

Amy LeViere, philanthropic services officer for Community Foundation, said the CSA program for single-parent families reflects the conversations that occur at Community Foundation convenings. "We truly are an intersection of cross-cultural and cross-sector engagement that attracts community members, philanthropists, civic leaders, businesses and elected officials all to advance equity and opportunity through multi-layered connections to community resources," she said.

Steph Bailey, chair of Community Foundation's Women's Fund Advisory Committee, added, "Empowering women changes lives and changes our community. Connections through Women's Fund grants, resources, gatherings and events help make that happen."

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