A Decade of Serving Seniors With We Are Family
Since 2016, the FRESHFARM Food Hub has partnered with organizations across the Washington, DC, metro area to bring fresh, local produce to some of our most vulnerable neighbors. One of our earliest partners was We Are Family Senior Outreach Network, a DC-based nonprofit that mobilizes a committed corps of community volunteers to connect isolated seniors with free services, advocacy, and companionship. To celebrate the Food Hub’s tenth anniversary and the partnerships critical to our work, we caught up with We Are Family co-director Mark Andersen to reflect on the past decade of working together.
FRESHFARM: How did you start working with the Food Hub?
Mark: Ten years ago, we started working with the Food Hub at the Columbia Heights market. Tulin Ozdeger, my co-director at We Are Family, had long wanted to provide our seniors with more fresh produce. The Columbia Heights farmers market was so close to the senior apartment buildings we were delivering to, so the partnership made a lot of sense. The Food Hub brought us the food directly from the farmers at the market. We Are Family paid for it and delivered it to the seniors in the neighborhood for free. We started with just a few dozen seniors, but by the time the pandemic hit, we were going to nearly 300 folks.
FRESHFARM: What changes have you seen in your Food Hub relationship over the past decade?
Mark: In the beginning, our volunteers would bring grocery carts to the Columbia Heights market to pick up the produce, then push them around the neighborhood to drop off food at various buildings. As the program grew, we worked with FRESHFARM to refine our systems. Today, the Food Hub works with our delivery schedule, bringing us pre-packed bags right before volunteers show up on a Saturday morning, so there’s no need for us to have the infrastructure to store or refrigerate the produce. The volunteers then deliver the bags directly to the seniors — over 1,200 bags of fresh food each month!
Over the years, we’ve gotten more volunteers, reached more seniors, and honed our approach to be more effective and far-reaching. Whatever obstacles we face, we try to be creative and lead with compassion. The neighborhoods we work in face dramatic challenges — gentrification, cost of living increases, and the danger of long-time residents being pushed out, all in the context of dramatic economic inequality and racial oppression. So we try to draw people together from different walks of life, to let our older neighbors know that they still count for something amid all the changes. We want seniors to know that they are not facing these challenges alone, that we are standing with them. The challenges of growing old, often isolated, and in poverty are immense and inescapable — but no one should have to face them alone.
A key element of the We Are Family model is that we go directly to the people who need our services. We bring them shelf-stable products as well as fresh produce. Our focus on fresh fruits and vegetables has been tremendously popular with our seniors — and there is no way we could do it alone. We’re grateful for our partnership with the FRESHFARM Food Hub to serve some of the most marginalized, most at-risk members of our community.
FRESHFARM: How has working with the Food Hub impacted We Are Family?
Mark: Farmers markets are great because they bring the food to a convenient central point, and it’s a wonderful opportunity for people to interact with farmers and get the freshest produce you can get. But for older adults, it can be hard to get to a farmers market in the first place, much less get back home with bags of produce. Money to pay for the food can also be a major challenge.
Oftentimes, the people who most need help are those who don’t know about the help that’s available and/or won’t have the ability to take advantage of it. They will have a very hard time coming to you, even if they know about the resources. So we’re building a bridge between the resources in the community and the need that’s out there.
For our seniors, the feeling of someone walking with you through these challenges is pretty fundamentally important. We want them to know that there is “family” out there caring about you. We give people care and love, and this care is shown through food.
Fighting hunger is not just the job of professional do-gooders. What solves the problem is a mobilized, activated, caring community. This is not just a job for big institutions, but for all of us; we will only solve hunger with a grassroots mass movement of average folks looking to help, of people wanting to do good and bring justice in their own neighborhood.
FRESHFARM: What can the Food Hub provide that other food service partners can’t?
Mark: The outreach model is fundamental to our success: fresh produce from local farmers, brought directly to us at the place and time that work for us, so that we can mobilize our resources and volunteers to get nutritious, fresh food to the seniors who really need it and are really excited to receive the support. FRESHFARM coordinating with our We Are Family delivery schedule was really the key to this partnership working.
We are blessed to have a partner like FRESHFARM that is flexible enough to adapt to our model and the needs of our seniors. We knew for years that our seniors wanted more produce, but there wasn’t an effective way to provide it. Having a partner who has the range of contacts with the local agricultural community to be able to source really good fresh produce that they can get to us at the right time and place to get it straight out to the seniors’ homes — that’s enormous.
FRESHFARM: What surprises you most about working with the Food Hub and local farmers?
Mark: It shouldn’t be a surprise, really, but it is a good reminder. It’s really meaningful to recognize that someone is growing food for us. It’s hard work, being out there in the heat, in the fields, growing food to feed people and make our lives possible. None of us should ever take it for granted, and we should take care to ensure that farmers and farm workers get treated justly. I grew up on a farm in NE Montana — a farm my brother still runs — and it makes me happy to still be part of the farming community. Many of our seniors also grew up on farms or in more rural economies, so there is an element of nostalgia. FRESHFARM helps We Are Family create that nexus that brings us closer to each other through food.
FRESHFARM: Do you have any stories about clients’ experiences with Food Hub deliveries?
Mark: Some seniors are not interested in experimenting with new foods, while others are more curious but need a little guidance, so sometimes we provide recipes for them. One of my senior friends told me, “I don’t know what you call the things you sent last month, but I used the recipe you shared, and they were so good!” Many seniors are excited to prepare what comes in their bags. Even if you’re older, life can still keep unfolding, still keep being an adventure!
It’s also exciting to see the seniors engage with the volunteers who bring the food and to see people come together around basic but essential things like food. One of the great gifts of our partnership with FRESHFARM is that we not only are able to bring healthy, fresh food to people who desperately need it, but that by doing it we bring our community together in some pretty deep ways, across some serious boundaries, in ways that are precious beyond words. I feel truly blessed to be part of it!
FRESHFARM: What’s your favorite local food item you’ve received from the Food Hub?
Mark: Honeycrisp apples from McCleaf’s Orchard!
