Farms, non-profits and volunteers are teaming up with Feed HV to get fresh food items to people facing food insecurity in the Hudson Valley.

Farm workers gather a lot of fruits and vegetables each day, and it’s important for that food to not go to waste.

“The idea of waste is really totally counter-intuitive to us, so [we do] whatever we can do to get it to people,” said Mark Doyle, farm manager at Fishkill Farms.

Local farms, like Fishkill Farms, donate extra produce to Feed HV Community Food Network.

“We’re making sure that places have fresh produce, making sure they have shelf stable goods,” said Christopher Braccia, a program associate for Feed HV.

Dutchess Outreach is one of the organizations that receives the goods, and makes them available for free.

“Local farms recognize the amount of food insecurity in the Hudson Valley and have really stepped up,” said Stacy Dedring, farm and market manager at Dutchess Outreach.

Doyle said the produce being donated is perfectly edible. It just isn’t suitable for their farm’s store shelves.

“This is fruit that’s been in cold storage from last season, but these are Jonaprince Apples,” Doyle said. “They’re really in fabulous condition, but I really don’t want to set them out on the marketplace because we are actually about to enter our current season of apples.”

Feed HV estimates one out of every 10 people in the Hudson Valley is dealing with food insecurity.

“We don’t have folks that are coming month after month, year after year. A lot of folks will just come in once or twice if they hit a hard patch,” Dedring said. “We really want to be here to be that bridge for people, so they feel safe and secure and don’t feel that anxiety around basic human needs like food.”

“The ability to have fresh food for them, that’s available for them, is really essential,” Braccia said.