What is a CSA?

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) refers both to a particular model of selling produce, but at a more fundament level CSA also refers to the philosophy underpinning the model: a partnership between a farm and the community local to that farm. In a CSA model, partners purchase a CSA “share” prior to the produce season. These pre-paid subscriptions fund the operating costs for the farm season, and partners receive a weekly share of the farm produce in return.

The CSA philosophy emphasizes the interrelationship between a farm and a community and asks partners to share directly in both the costs and the returns of a farm’s work. Yes, as a partner you share in the farm’s risk, but you also share in the farm’s success. And that success is to partake of seasonal produce, grown locally through environmentally regenerative practices, harvested at the height of ripeness, nutritious and flavorful.

Details of Sophia’s Pantry CSA Partnership

Sophia’s Pantry 2024 CSA Season 2 is planned for 10 weeks, from September 19 — November 21.

Any changes to this schedule will be communicated to our CSA partners.

Each week, partners will receive a pre-sorted share of the harvest via pickup at a designated “drop” location and time.

Weekly shares include 5-8 different items.

Shares come in three sizes:

• Full Share ($360 + $20 one-time fee*)
  for 4 people or 2 if vegetarian/vegan
  At signup: $20 fee for sustainable packaging materials*; then $120/month for 3 months, charged at the end of each month
• Half Share ($255 + $20 one-time fee*)
  for 2 people
  At signup: $20 fee for sustainable packaging materials*; then $85/month for 3 months, charged at the end of each month
• Personal Share ($150 + $20 one-time fee*)
  for 1 person or 2 if eating lighter or fewer at-home meals
  At signup: $20 fee for sustainable packaging materials*; then $50/month for 3 months, charged at the end of each month

There is no restriction or extra charge for multiple households to go in together on a share.

Drops will be Thursdays from 4:30 – 6:00 pm at:

• Grace Baptist Church, 4200 Dover Road, Richmond, VA, 23221
• St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, 12291 River Road, Richmond, VA 23238
• Sophia Farms at Laurel Branch Farm, 15233 Gatewood Road, Dinwiddie, VA, 23841
• the Battery Park area of Richmond, 23222

For any weeks when partners are not able to pick up their share at their usual drop, they can arrange for that week:

• to pick up at another drop location,
• 
to designate someone else to pick up their share, or
• to donate their share via Sophia Farms’ regular tithing and the Share-a-Share Project (see below)

For any week when a partner is a “no-show” and has not made any arrangements, the share will be donated. If a partner must drop out during the season, Sophia’s Pantry will transfer the share to an individual designated by the partner or will donate the share for the season’s remaining weeks.

If you have any questions, please contact us at csa@sophiafarms.org.

The Share-a-Share Project

This year Sophia is partnering with RVA Community Fridges to offer you the opportunity to purchase a CSA share for donation. (We look forward to again working with our partner, MPACT. The founder and director, Polly Jones Mason is taking a sabbatical rest this year.)  

Founder Taylor Scott describes RVA Community Fridges:

We aim to deter food deserts—what we like to describe as food apartheid—by putting up 24/7 accessible community fridges. And those are free food just like the ones you have in your home. We go and stock them throughout the week with free, fresh local produce from our community partners. We aim to put them wherever there is need in our community.

The first fridge was installed in Union Hill in 2011, and now RVA Community Fridges has 14 fridges throughout Richmond. Read more about the work of RVA Community Fridges here.

Donors can participate in this partnership by purchasing a half share ($255) or a full share ($360). Then, in our weekly CSA picking and packing, we will combine all donated shares for delivery to RVA Community Fridges to be distributed throughout Richmond.

Your donated share is considered a cash donation and is tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

The Share-a-Share project works in harmony with Sophia’s commitment to our core value of tithing of our produce. A portion of our tithe goes to the Colonial Heights Food Pantry. Tithing enables Sophia to partner in food justice work in areas both locally to our farm in Dinwiddie County and locally to the majority of our CSA customers in the greater Richmond area. 

Why become a Sophia’s Pantry CSA Partner?

To receive a weekly share of seasonal produce, with benefits of vegetables that are:

• healthier, better tasting, and longer-lasting than grocery store vegetables
• grown with sustainability-focused methods and organic-based practices
• benefitting the environment through aspects such as regenerative farming practices and reduced “food miles” (distance food travels from origin to final destination)
• directly supporting the farmer, in this case Sophia Farms (and Sophia Seminary)

To support the life and work of Sophia Theological Seminary:

• Sophia Farms has been established to fund the operating costs of Sophia Theological Seminary
• the relationship between Sophia Farms and Sophia Seminary recognizes God’s first commandment to be stewards of creation; food connects humanity to creation and to God, and agriculture is a resource for God’s work in the world
• students, along with faculty and others, contribute their labor to the work of Sophia Farms, including Sophia’s Pantry CSA, thus “funding” their seminary tuition and housing
• Sophia tithes (10%) from its produce to local food ministries

As a CSA partner, each Thursday morning of the season, you’ll receive the Sophia’s Pantry email, “Just Picked”. In addition to serving as a reminder to swing by and pick up your share that day, “Just Picked” includes:

• a list of what to expect in your share
• updates from the farm
• information on items in the share, including how to store and preserve them
• recipes from folks in the Sophia community, including CSA partners, using ingredients from the week’s share

What to Expect in Your CSA Share

Season 1 shares begin with cool season vegetables and transition to warm season vegetables. Season 2 shares begin with warm/hot season vegetables and transition back to cool season vegetables. Weekly shares will include 5-8 different items.

Cool season shares are planned to include:

• lettuces
• other leafy greens, such as kale, spinach, swiss chard, and arugula
• cabbage
• cauliflower
• broccoli
• bok choi
• kohlrabi
• beets
• radishes
• collards
• winter squashes, such as butternut, acorn, and spaghetti (Fall)
• sweet potatoes (Fall)

Warm/hot season shares are planned to include:

• tomatoes, slicing and cherry
• cucumbers
• green beans
• summer squash, such as yellow squash and zucchini
• eggplant
• bell peppers, green and colored
• banana peppers
• jalapeño peppers
• corn
• herbs
• green onions
• melon

Our Relationship to Food in a Post-Pandemic World

As our world navigates the changes necessitated subsequent to the pandemic, we are also confronted with what the pandemic has revealed to us about our relationship to food, and we are prompted to consider what practices we desire to make permanent.

• Sophia Farms follows regenerative agricultural practices that shape all aspects of work on the farm, including harvesting, storing, and distribution procedures that emphasize the well-being of both CSA workers and partners.
• CSA partners receive local, seasonal, fresh, nutritious produce, reducing the need to visit establishments such as grocery stores.
• CSA partners are ensured a share of the weekly farm yield, so availability of produce is more predictable.
• Sophia Farms tithes from its produce to extend the availability of our produce to those in the community who experience food insecurity.

If you have any questions, please contact us at csa@sophiafarms.org.

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