G.I.F.T. – GIVE IT FRESH TODAY!
Friday, June 15, 2012 • 2:16pm
The Summit Farmers Market is starting a new initiative this month on June 24 with G.I.F.T. – Give It Fresh Today. This produce donation project caught the eye of Vivian Best in Chicago, Illinois and started organizing her own in Honolulu, Hawaii in 2010. Now Summit has a chance to incorporate the same concept at the Summit Farmers Market.
“People shopping at farmers markets are already making an effort to support local agriculture with their purchases because it is aligned with their environmental or health values” stated Vivian Best. It provides a way for folks to give locally grown fresh food to people that might otherwise not have access to it.
What are we asking? We are asking our customers to buy a little extra each week and donate to G.I.F.T. right at the market each and every Sunday. Also, people who have gardens can bring their extra home-grown produce to the market as well. This program will help contribute to the health and wellness of the people receiving the donations. To date, S.H.I.P. – Summit Helping Its People, Summit, New Jersey and St. Ann’s Soup Kitchen, Newark, New Jersey will be the recipients of these efforts.
S.H.I.P. was founded in 1991 to help those in need in the Summit area and they serve breakfast weekdays at Calvary Episcopal Church and Dinner is served at Oakes Memorial Center on the weekends. St. Ann’s Soup Kitchen has become the hub for Franciscan Charities, Inc. and last year provided over 80,000 meals and distributed 18,000 bags of groceries to the poor of Newark.
Starting this program also means we want to support our farmers in providing valuable fresh foods to our community and in conjunction many of our farmers will be making donations at the end of the market each Sunday as well. The program will begin on Sunday, June 24.
For more information about this initiative call Summit Downtown, Inc., 908.277.6100 or Bob Conway, SDI Trustee, 908.400.2520 or email to: GiveItFreshTodayNJ@yahoo.com.
About Summit Downtown, Inc.
Summit Downtown, Inc. (SDI) is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the development and improvement of the quality of life in the business community in the center of the city. The organization specifically focuses on the central business district of the city of Summit with a goal to support them and their activities.
