Veggielution in Partnership with SVBC

Eastside Connect Farm Box by Bike

Note: From January 2024 onwards, all volunteering for farm box delivery is managed by Veggielution.

In March 2020, Veggielution launched Eastside Connect, a program through which we distribute fresh produce to low-income East San José residents who are experiencing the brunt of the COVID-19-related shutdowns. While Eastside Connect was initially launched as a direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has quickly become a central strategy for us to connect people from diverse backgrounds through food and farming.

Veggielution’s Eastside Connect program serves more than 300 people per week through farm boxes, hot meals, and our onsite farm stand.  You can help pack the farm boxes and also deliver them by bike! 

Beginning in 2021, Veggielution will grow the capacity of Eastside Connect by adding bike delivery, food safety certification, and value added products prepared by local residents, we will help build a more innovative and climate-resilient local food system (growing, processing, and distributing Veggielution produce). While we will explore ways that urban farm operation can be a platform to further increase economic mobility of low-income East San José residents.

In partnership with Veggielution, we at SVBC organized and trained volunteers to deliver farm boxes until the end of 2023. Switching to bike delivery reduced and, ultimately, eliminated carbon emissions from the use of theirfarm truck. It was also an opportunity to engage with a new audience and encourage them to learn more about Veggielution, Emma Prusch Farm Park, and the surrounding neighborhoods of East San José.

Located in the low-income community of East San José, Veggielution’s Eastside Connect program focuses on the importance of public open space as a local source of some portion of our community’s food. As our community slowly emerges from sheltering in place, the physicality of engaging with urban open spaces such as Veggielution and the surrounding parks, trails, and bike lanes, can help us address the need to rebalance from the virtual toward the real. Accessible to the public at no cost, spaces like Veggielution play a critical role in our community’s recovery from the pandemic and resilience in the face of climate change.