Our Mission
A Drop in the Desert connects farm-fresh, local produce to people living in food deserts or other in-need communities who desire to make health-conscious dietary choices. By working with farmers and like-minded community organizations, we are able to collectively reduce the financial and logistical barriers many communities face when it comes to accessing and cooking healthy and sustainable foods.
We work to build initiatives that fit the needs of our communities and promote health, well-being, and self-reliance. A Drop in the Desert is committed to the mission of HEALTH-E: Helping Everyone Attain Longevity Through Healthy Eating.
To learn more about those we serve, as well as our farms and community partners, take a closer look at our model.
Together, we can improve health one drop at a time.
Why Food Deserts?
We believe everyone should have equal access to healthy produce.
The USDA defines food deserts as low-income communities where a substantial number of residents has low access to a supermarket or large grocery store. However, many community leaders, activists and urban residents consider food deserts to be any place where fresh food is sparsely available. According to the most recent USDA data, an estimated 39 million people or 12.8% of the US population live in low income and low access areas.
Most definitions of food deserts take into account at least some of the following indicators of access:
Accessibility to sources of healthy food, as measured by distance to a store or by the number of stores in an area.
Individual-level resources that may affect accessibility, such as family income or vehicle availability.
Neighborhood-level indicators of resources, such as the average income of the neighborhood and the availability of public transportation.
Research suggests there are more food desert communities prevalent than previously identified by the USDA. Often times increasing the available supply of nearby supermarkets is thought to be the solution to food deserts. However, the entry of a new supermarket has economically small effects on healthy grocery purchases. New supermarkets mostly divert purchases from existing supermarkets. Benefits of additional supermarkets derive less from healthy eating and more from increased local variety and decreased travel costs. Even when residents do buy groceries from new supermarkets, they often buy products of the same low nutritional value. In fact, some research suggests equalizing supply differences would only close the gap in healthy eating between low and high-income households by less than 10 percent.
Instead, the biggest difference in what we eat comes not from where we live, but primarily from differences in income, followed by education and nutritional knowledge, which shape our eating habits and overall health. Therefore, our mission at A Drop in the Desert is to increase the demand for healthier foods by eliminating the financial costs and logistical burdens that many food desert families face.
Why Local Farms?
Supporting local farms is mutually beneficial to consumers and farmers alike.
We chose to work with local farms because today, family farms, like many other households and businesses, are recovering from the country’s dramatic economic downturn.
Many farmers circulate money in their communities by selling crops in direct markets like farm stands, farmers markets, and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs. However, these markets account for less than one percent of total U.S. agricultural sales and are generally accessed by the smallest farms. At the same time, just 6 percent of U.S. farms are now producing 75 percent of agricultural products.
For farmers, the benefits of growing more fruits and vegetables include an increased per-acre value to the farm business compared to what is earned from commodity grain or oilseed production. For the community at large, benefits include job creation and support of local businesses. Increased consumption of fruit and vegetables can also promote a healthier, more productive population that requires fewer sick days and healthcare expenditures.
Additionally, organic agriculture offers long-term environmental sustainability. Buying produce locally significantly reduces the carbon footprint of the food distribution system. Likewise, soil building practices such as crop rotations, inter-cropping, symbiotic associations, cover crops, organic fertilizers, and minimum tillage are central to organic practices. In turn, nutrient and energy cycling is increased and the retentive abilities of the soil for nutrients and water are enhanced, while soil erosion is controlled.
The majority of our produce is organic and locally grown near the community it serves. By working with local farms, we are supporting small business and laying the groundwork for lasting relationships between farmers and motivated individuals with a demonstrated need for access to fresh foods.
