Partner Spotlight: Veggielution
Veggielution staff setting out freshly harvested cucumbers and squash.
“Food, for us, is always the tool to bring people in.”
Tucked, not so quietly, away underneath the Joe Colla highway interchange in San Jose sits a 6 acre community farm. You may have seen it before, perhaps asking yourself, “Is that a park?” “Is that a community center?” “Is that a peacock next to a chicken coop?” The answer to all of these questions is a bold YES. Veggielution, connected to the Emma Prusch Farm Park, is home to an abundance of chatty animals, eager students, involved neighbors, and of course, farm fresh organic fruits and veggies. Their small staff works tirelessly to serve and bring together their East San Jose community members. Sometimes this looks like cooking classes; other times it looks like environmental advocacy training. Lately it has looked a lot like 5,000 free weekly CSA boxes of local produce for vulnerable families in San Jose.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here- before the boxes come the relationships. And the best partnerships always start with good friendships (nevermind folks who say never to do business with your friends). Back in 2016 at Spade and Plow’s inception, Veggielution was one of those first faithful farm friends. Sharing greenhouse space, resources and local farm connections came long before the box thing. Not to mention, 11 different S&P employees started at Veggielution and were pointed south on 101- lucky for us!
Veggielution Bodega
In the height of the Covid crisis in 2020, our friendship took on another dimension as Veggielution received funding for the “East Side Connect” initiative, delivering farm boxes to 40 East San Jose families who were identified as high risk and unable to leave home. Along for the [tractor] ride, Spade & Plow joined in to contribute boxes and produce, watching the program expand to 200 free weekly boxes. “We’ve turned our outdoor kitchen/classroom space into a store front for weekly pick up,” says Emily, Veggielution’s Marketing and Impact Director. “We like to call it the ‘Veggielution Bodega’ since we can now also provide dry goods like soaps and shampoo along with produce.
“Connecting people from diverse backgrounds has always been part of our mission, but we never really considered that could include farmers too.” -Veggielution
Once a hub for community programs and environmental education events, Veggielution has pivoted in crisis to continue providing for their community, just in an increasingly edible way. 200 weekly boxes quickly turned into 5,000 as another partner, “Off the Grid,” received funding for more south bay families in need. Though Veggielution didn’t have capacity to provide all the food for said boxes, their team began forming relationships and receiving produce from 9 different farms to meet the demand.