Prescott Farmers Market Program
Feed Your Neighbors
“I’m very grateful for the farmers market and all it offers with great food and products and wonderful caring people to be around. I’m very grateful for the Feed your Neighbor program and SNAP. Right now I need that assistance and I do hope that will change for me. This is the first time in my life I have felt the need for such assistance.”
-FYN recipient
With charitable donations and community partner funding, we purchase fresh fruits and vegetables from our local farmers. We then partner with local agencies to identify those who are in need and provide food assistance for them, be it delivering a food box, providing shopping assistance at the market utilizing Feed Your Neighbors Food Vouchers, or simply ensuring our food pantries are supplied with fresh options. This program is a win-win because it provides fresh food to those who are struggling to put food on the table, while also supporting small family farms and, in turn, boosting the local economy.
Building FYN boxes is the most visible aspect of the program, as often we don’t see the end food recipient face to face. Most Saturdays during the earliest part of the market, volunteers gather pre-ordered food from 12-15 PFM farmers and build food boxes full of fresh food. On average, each FYN box contains about $50 worth of local veggies, and fruit when available, and feeds a family of four for a week.
We acknowledge that food insecurity is a year-round issue, even before the pandemic, and we will continue our efforts as long as there is a need in our community. Your charitable gift keeps our community’s local food chain intact by ensuring that we have the resources we need to act quickly, evolve, and innovate to ensure our community has access to fresh local food, each and every day.
Thanks to our partner organizations who help us reach households in need:
- AZ Health Zone (Yavapai County Cooperative Extension)
- Prescott Community Cupboard
- Bagdad Community Food Bank
- Yavapai College Food Pantry
- Granite Peak Unitarian Universalist Congregation
- Prescott Unified School District
- Humboldt Unified School District
- The Launch Pad Teen Center
- Manzanita Outreach
- Northern Arizona Council of Governments
- Ash Fork Head Start
- Chino Valley Head Start
- Humboldt Head Start
- Liberty Head Start
- Nye Head Start
- Prescott Valley Head Start
And a special thanks to our community friends and partners who contribute to help make the FYN program sustainable:
“Receiving food boxes from the Prescott Farmers Market has made it easier to access fresh and healthy food that I otherwise would not be able to afford. My favorite box contents have been all of the delicious citrus.”~Anonymous Recipient
“I’m thrilled to receive my Feed Your Neighbors box. Everything is so beautiful and I can’t get enough of all the greens. Thank you so much for all that you do for me and our community.”~Anonymous Recipient
“I look forward to opening the food box. It’s like the best present ever! I know the food is fresher than anything I could buy at the store, plus it was lovingly grown by local farmers working hard to raise their families, just like I am. Sometimes, pandemic or not, we all could use a little help temporarily. I’m very thankful for donors, the market and it’s farmers and volunteers who make this program possible. I will pay it forward!”~Anonymous Recipient
Whether you drop $5 in the donation jar on box building days, or make a monthly donation of $20 as part of your regular grocery budget, or make a $800 tax credit donation- every cent donated to Feed Your Neighbors goes directly and immediately to the program. We are honored to help nourish families in our community while simultaneously supporting local farmers and ranchers. Your contribution helps us address both new and ongoing challenges and ensure that your friends, family, and neighbors who need it most are getting fresh produce. Make a donation today!