St. Rose’s CSA

Want fresh, local, organic produce for a fraction of what it costs at Whole Foods?

Join St. Rose’s CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)

Spring Semester CSA                   Summer CSA                  Fall Semester CSA

What is a CSA? A cooperative vegetable buying club that invests in a farmer’s harvest.  CSA members each buy a “share” directly from the farm at the beginning of the season.   This provides the farm the up-front capital needed to hire workers, harvest produce, and buy seeds for the following season.  Each share is a prospective investment: when members pay for a share, they don’t know what exactly they will get each week; instead, the farm delivers a variety of whatever is ripe for picking, ensuring that the food will be fresh.  By cutting out intermediary retailers, and by providing financing up-front instead of after the produce has been grown, our suppliers are able to charge us far less per pound than would otherwise be possible. The price averages out to around $2.00 per pound of organic, fresh, locally-grown food – far less than comparable items at Whole Foods or even at conventional supermarkets.

Our Suppliers: Norwich Meadows Farm

Family-owned, certified organic, 50-acre farm in Norwich, NY.  They grow all types of vegetables and raise chickens.  They farm according a theology-based philosophy of resource conservation; that God commands us to be good stewards of the Earth, and that healthy, naturally-grown food will help combat U.S. obesity and other health crises.  Most of their temporary workers are students from Egypt and other countries that are interested in immigrating to the States.  The owners help their workers get visas and education or permanent employment.  They sell almost all of their produce directly to consumers through Greenmarkets and several CSAs around New York City.  Also, their food is delicious.  Learn more at www.norwichmeadowsfarm.com/.

What it costs —- For 6-8 lbs of locally grown organic produce delivered to Dagger John’s restaurant in the McGiney Center basement level on the Rose Hill Campus,Thursdays 230-530pm.

Fall Semester CSA: ~$17.27/week for 10 weeks, from early-September to mid-November.

Spring Semester CSA: ~$40-50/delivery; runs January to April.

Summer CSA: ~$15/week; runs mid-June to mid-November

Fruit shares are available for $12/week during Fall and Summer CSA

For a list of fruits and vegetables that the farm produces click HERE

Benefits:

Human Health. The CSA food is more than just a good bargain.  Our members have remarked on how the CSA vegetables make them feel better and healthier.   The synthetic pesticides and fertilizers in conventionally-grown vegetables are linked to numerous health problems, including premature adolescence, birth defects, neurodevelopmental disorders, several cancers, endocrine disorders, and many more.  Conventional produce also has much lower nutritional value than organic produce – several studies show at least a 50% decrease in nutrient density.

Environmental Health. The agricultural methods required to grow conventional vegetables are contributing to enormous environmental degradation, including but not limited to: soil contamination, water contamination, loss of genetic diversity (which caused the Irish potato famine), increased dependence on petroleum-based chemical additives, and destruction of ecosystems.   Many people assume that conventional produce is safe because vegetables have been around forever, but the chemicals and methods used to grow conventional vegetables today are only a generation old, and in that single generation have wreaked considerable damage to our soil and water.

Responsible Business. Norwich Meadows Farm is a model of a profitable, sustainable, ethically-run business.  In a time when hundreds of small farms across the country are going under, Norwich Meadows represents exactly the type of enterprise that deserves our support.

Charity. Zaid, the Farm’s owner, intentionally gives us more food than we paid for, which we donate to the Loaves & Fishes Soup Kitchen at St. Paul the Apostle. Donations come to about 100 pounds a week; over the two and a half years we’ve been around, we’ve donated over 3,000 pounds of high-quality, nutritionally-dense fresh food.

The Food Is Delicious.  Really, really delicious.

This could not have been possible without the Fordham Law student organization Farm to Fordham.  They have already established a Lincoln Center CSA with Norwich Meadows, and have provided valuable guidance.