A farmer, a field of cabbage and a mission: to rescue food

Mike Etchart kneels in a field; crisp, leafy cabbage plants up to his waist. He slices a plump head off a nearby plant and holds it up, admiring it against the clear, warm Arizona sky.

“We harvest green cabbage from November to June every year,” he said. “This is for retail. So, we put 18-20 of these in a box, and then it gets shipped to grocery stores the same night it’s harvested.”

Mike is the farm manager and co-owner of Everkrisp Vegetables, a third-generation family farm near Phoenix. It’s cabbage harvest time, and his crew is hard at work in the field behind him, chopping the vegetable’s head off the plant and boxing it up.

“When we’re selling to grocery stores, there’s a pretty tough standard we have to meet,” Mike said. “So, naturally we leave some produce in the field that isn’t necessarily bad, it just doesn’t work for the store – it’s either too big or has some slight cracking on it. Just cosmetics.”

Instead of discarding that fresh, safe, locally-grown produce, Mike works with St. Mary’s Food Bank – a member of the Feeding America network – to rescue the cabbage and distribute it to neighbors in their community.

“We'll come in this field after we've passed it with our machine, and we'll do another secondary harvest of this kind of bigger cabbage. And St. Mary's comes and picks it up and helps us get it distributed into the community,” Mike said.

Nationwide, Feeding America works with farmers like Mike as well as retailers and food manufacturers to rescue food – to ensure access to safe, wholesome food like produce, protein and dairy for neighbors facing hunger.

Last year, the Feeding America network rescued more than 4 billion pounds of food – with the goal of rescuing an additional 1 billion pounds this year.

“There’s a lot of love and time and energy put into this cabbage,” Mike said. “So it’s a really good feeling to know that (the food bank) can help us get this extra cabbage to people facing hunger in the community.”