CMI April News
Dear Friends of Community Markets Inc.,
Wow – we’re already in the 2nd quarter of 2024! Time sure flies when you’re feeding underserved West Virginian families with nutritious locally grown food and supporting farmers in the process! The CMI team has been doing just that with the help of more volunteers and your support! Thank you! Enjoy the updates below and please consider volunteering at an upcoming mobile farmers market or Food Box Giveaway or Make A Donation to help CMI keep growing.
In just over 18 months, Community Markets Inc. has fed over 6,200 people in 10 WV counties with 80,000 lbs. of healthy & locally sourced food and put $127,500 back into local farmers’ and small family business owners’ pockets.
Feeding Students with Healthy WV Grown Food – Over the past two months CMI has partnered with Jefferson County Schools to feed over 525 underserved students in the county through the Local Food Access Backpack Program. This innovative program has provided three rounds of healthy groceries sourced from local farms to students in a drawstring bag as they leave school. Instead of simply giving them single serve snacks, the grocery bag is designed with portions meant to be shared with students’ families back home too! Items like fresh bread from Bolivar Bread Bakery, locally made jam, honey, freeze dried apples, and more were included in the bags. CMI is excited to keep working with JCS in the future to serve more students in need!
Food Box Giveaway in Bolivar – Last week, Community Markets Inc. partnered with the Town of Bolivar to feed 150 families with bags of 2-3 days worth of fresh and locally sourced food. We were given beautiful weather which made for a very pleasant experience outside of the Bolivar Community Center. Thank you to the Town of Bolivar for helping to pull this off and for those who came out to volunteer and receive food! Thank you also to our other partners who made this possible like Chick-fil-A Martinsburg for donating Chicken Sandwiches to feed our volunteers! For pictures and more info, see CMI’s Facebook Page.
Bring a Food Box Giveaway to your community! CMI is looking for more partners and locations for Food Box Giveaways. We’re especially interested in coming to Berkeley & Morgan counties and even the Potomac Highlands. Please be in touch with Mark Peiffer for more info! We’re looking for a location/partner for late May’s Giveaway!
Union Market returning to Harpers Ferry/Bolivar – People have been waiting for Union Market to open back up! The projected start time for the next season of this mobile market serving Harpers Ferry & Bolivar is late May/early June. We’re having a proper full-service eCommerce website built to best serve these communities. stay tuned for more info!
There’s much more I could write, but that’s what time allows for right now. Please Like, Follow, & Share CMI of Facebook for the latest updates. Consider volunteering – there are many ways to get involved! Also, please consider Making a Donation to CMI, especially becoming a Monthly Donor so that together we can feed hungry Appalachian families in our community and support WV farmers.