This post is for the locals, but I think you’ll appreciate the good things that the 3000 Club Food Rescue is doing in Arizona. From the site:
Millions of pounds of produce were being thrown away at the dump in Nogales, Arizona every year. With our food banks desperate for fresh produce, The 3000 Club was established in May of 2008 in order to rescue, transport and distribute these produce and make it available to food banks throughout America.
I have witnessed this terrible waste in the very area in which I live. I smell the rottening fruit and vegetables at certain times during the year. The flies go out of control due to all the rotting produce. I am so thrilled to hear about an effort like this being done to help Arizonans.
Linda, one of my readers, commented to my post last week Prices are Rising, I’m Starting to Get a Little Freaked Out:
There is a new food program they have at my church in Phoenix. Central Avenue and Rose Lane. (Church for the Nations) On Saturday Feb 26th from 10 am until 12 noon for a $10 dollar donation you can get up to 60 pounds of fresh vegs. I think they are different every month. I got a ton of zuchini, yellow squash, spagetti squash, grape tomatoes, egg plant, orange peppers. I prepared and froze most of it except the egg plant and the spaghetti squash. It is for anyone, you don’t have to qualify.
I told Mr. A about it, and decided I would take a drive into the big city to check it out.
Sixty pounds of vegetables for $10 works out to $0.16 a pound. However, considering that I had to drive over 50 miles one way I would need to take my gas consumption into consideration. My 1996 Nissan Pathfinder gets 18 miles to the gallon, and having paid $3.12 a gallon for gas on my last fill up, I figured I would use at least 6 gallons of gas, or $18.72. OUCH.
Still, $28.72 for sixty pounds of vegetables works out to $0.47 a pound. I figured it was still a good enough (screaming, okay?) deal to drive in and check it out.
I arrived at the church a few minutes after 10 o’clock. There were already about twenty cars in the parking lot and there was a row of tables set up in the typical Farmer’s Market style. As I walked toward this area a friendly woman asked me if this was my first time here and explained that I would need to go to the end of the tables, sign the registration sheet, pay my $10 and choose my vegetables.
There were already people in line ahead of me, filling their boxes with vegetables. The ladies at the “registration” table explained the process again, and handed each person either a regular sized box, or two shorter boxes. We then worked our way down the line and chose the vegetables we wanted. Here is what they had available last Saturday:
- Corn on the cob
- Yellow Bell Peppers
- Organic Eggplant
- English Cucumbers
- Red Plum Tomatoes
- Yellow Tomatoes
- Green Chili Peppers
- Jalapeno Peppers
- Oranges
- Hamburger Buns
- Some type of kool-aid style drinks in small bottles
- Bonus item for the first few dozen: Watermelon
As I walked through the line, all the people helping to give out the vegetables were very friendly and encouraging. They encouraged everyone to take as much as they wanted. There were pallets filled with boxes and boxes of produce, so I imagine they hoped for a large turnout.
Here is a picture of the produce I ended up bringing home (corn on the cob not shown):
The corn on the cob had mildew on the outer husks, but the ladies explained to us that the ear was in good condition and they pulled back the husks. It was perfectly good inside.
One of the men helped me carry my box to the car, and told me I was welcome to get a second box. I decided I would do that, since I was spending almost $20 in gasoline, so if I bought two, that would put the cost per box at $10 in gasoline.
All told, I ended up with 61 pounds of vegetables. After considering the cost of gasoline, and paying $20 for two boxes of vegetables, my final cost was $0.63 a pound.
That is still an amazing cost for vegetables, and will be very helpful for us in this financial crunch.
Once I got home I had a lot of work cut out for me. Tomorrow I’ll tell you exactly what I got, and the work involved to process everything. For one thing, it involved using a dehydrator. I own a Nesco, but I would love to invest in an Excalibur because they hold so much more and that is a plus when you come home with sixty pounds of vegetables!
I did a bit more research and with the help of a woman from Church for the Nations I found that this food outreach is called Market on the Move and is sponsored by The 3000 Club Food Rescue.
If you live in or around the Valley of the Sun, this link will take you to the dates and places for upcoming the Market on the Move events.
Tomorrow I’ll show you how I processed the vegetables. Stay tuned…
Good write up on this project. The next one is March 26th.
Question? OH what to do with the peppers? Do I clean them and freeze them raw? Hopefully there is some help out there for and answer.
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mildred laen Reply:
March 11th, 2012 at 2:54 pm
It depends on how u are going to use the green peppers. U ca fix a mixture like meat loaf,stuff the peppers after u have cut off the end where the stem is and removed the seeds,then freeze. I dice some ,freeze, for use in meat loafs,spaghetti sauce,chili,soups.
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Mrs. Accountability Reply:
March 31st, 2012 at 1:50 pm
Mildred, good suggestions, thanks!
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Thank you for sharing that! I’m excited to check one out this weekend!
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where is the next market?
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Mrs. Accountability Reply:
April 1st, 2011 at 5:30 pm
@sharon, hi, if you follow this link: https://www.the3000club.org/upcoming-events/catlistevents/2010/12/26 you will find the list where the vegetable boxes will be available. Four sites tomorrow, April 2nd, 2011.
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I looked at the link today, 08/20/2011, and saw no events listed. Have they stopped the program? Is it maybe on a summer break? I wonder if they have an email list to notify people of up coming dates.
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Mrs. Accountability Reply:
August 20th, 2011 at 5:55 pm
@BJ Jackson, if I understand the program correctly, the vegetable food boxes will resume sometime in the fall, maybe September. Not a lot can be grown at this time of the year. Our best growing season is during the fall and winter. So check back in September or October. Also, I have sent an email to MOM to ask them when they will resume the vegetable boxes and let you know if I hear back from them. Best regards, Mrs. Accountability
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Are you allowed to only one $10.00 per person or can you purchase more?
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Mrs. Accountability Reply:
September 29th, 2011 at 5:50 am
@Anita, you can buy more than one box. I have purchased two myself, and my husband purchased several for family members who wanted one. Best regards, Mrs. Accountability
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Celeste Reply:
November 27th, 2012 at 5:22 pm
Our church is a sponsor site. Since we are a relatively new sponsor we do not run out of produce quickly. Please visit us. The next Market on the Move is Saturday, December 1, 2012 from 7am-10am. The Garden Church is located at 8620 E. McDonald Drive in Scottsdale. Website address: thegardenaz.com
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Mrs. Accountability Reply:
November 29th, 2012 at 12:45 pm
Celeste, thank you for this comment, this is very helpful!
So today was my first time….I arrived at about 9 am and there were about 100 persons in front of me…at 930 a lady from the sale said we were at the end of the line and to send home the new persons arriving because they were running out of food. At 10 30 I finally got inside. All there was left was lots of tomatoes and cucumbers. I filled out the 2 boxes of tomatoes and went out the door. The produce looks really good but I had a feeling that the 2 boxes were not even near the 60 lbs. Went I arrived home I put everything on the scale and I had 31 lbs of produce. Lesson to learn is…arrive early and bring someone with you so you can carry more boxes. The idea is wonderful….you could tell from the people in line that isn t just the very poor that are in need but this is hard time also for many middle class families.
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Mrs. Accountability Reply:
October 3rd, 2011 at 7:51 am
@Anita, thanks for the update on how things are going. It was not like this last year, although I do admit I did not go to the very first one. I wonder if it will continue throughout the season… also like you, I did not get 60 pounds on my first trip. Although I don’t think they guarantee 60 pounds, but say we can have *up* to 60 pounds. Thank you again for the report back. Best, Mrs. A
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robyn Reply:
November 3rd, 2013 at 10:44 am
is this only in arizona, my sister is in florida. orlando
robyn,
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Saturday was my first time. I went to the Indian School location. We arrived at about 0830, and there were only 3-5 people in line ahead of us. Although we did not get 60lbs either, we did get probably close to 30-40lbs, and still well worth it! The only thing is that this stuff is on the verge of spoiling, so hubby and I had fun making a day of canning what we did get. All in all, it is a wonderful event, and although I am not poor per say, we are finding hard times just trying to get by paycheck to paycheck and this for sure is a help! I hope there is a different selection next week, as I will be returning as often as I can!
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Mrs. Accountability Reply:
October 7th, 2011 at 8:55 pm
@Katie, thank you for reporting back on your experience with Market on the Move. It was my experience last year that there was a slightly different selection each time. Thank you again!
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mildred laen Reply:
March 11th, 2012 at 3:00 pm
Katie, like u, I am not poor but frugal and take advantage of sales,stocking,coupons,discounts,waste not-want not. I was taught at an early age to protect and save for the future.
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We have been members since the beginning but I must say there are days like today that are fewer then not where the limits yielded us 32 pounds with the box. We were in line when they opened. Forty mile round trip with the price of gas and false advertising not worth it. It use to be a good thing now it’s really to many people not enough produce. They should just box up thirty pounds and say this is the offering today. Then we would not have disappointment every month.
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Mrs. Accountability Reply:
October 27th, 2012 at 8:33 pm
Eva, that’s too bad. I would feel disappointed too. Maybe there isn’t a lot of produce right now since we are just at the beginning of the cooler weather. Hopefully it gets better. Or maybe you could carpool with a neighbor and split the cost of gasoline or take turns driving to drive the costs down a little lower.
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