About the Fresh Stops

The Fresh Stop offers a way for neighbors to easily connect with food that is locally grown by farmers within the City and in the countryside. In the process, you will meet other neighbors, interact with children, learn important facts and tips about nutrition, sample locally grown food, and share in fun events, including music or potlucks.

Xavier with spraybottleAll food available at a Fresh Stop is picked-up directly from participating farmers and brought to your neighborhood. The first Fresh Stop operated in the Clark-Metro neighborhood during the summer of 2005. A couple of our older patrons recalled a time not so long ago when farmers would drive trucks full of produce to neighborhoods in Cleveland and sell their harvest right off of the truck. While most food today travels 1,300 miles and can be off of the vine for more than 8 days, food at a Fresh Stop is picked fresh and delivered fresh.

Fresh Stops offer weekly “share bags” which include a mix of produce available from local farmers each week. The contents of each bag will vary according to what produce is available that week. The share bag program is a form of cooperative purchasing in which a group of neighbors purchase a share of produce from a local farmer. The farmer receives payment upfront in exchange for a bounty of produce throughout the growing season. This is a form of “community supported agriculture” in which a group of people support a local farmer or group of local farmers by committing a portion of their weekly food budget to supporting that farm.

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