People Making A Difference: South Pomona Urban Farm Providing Hope, Nourishment
SOUTH POMONA (CBSLA) — From fresh fruits and veggies to toiletries and basic essentials, a South Pomona urban farm is spreading hope, health and nourishment one box at a time.
"It's giving our communities an opportunity to have access to fresh food," Stephen Yorba, of Lopez Urban Farm, said.
South Pomona has been hit especially hard by the economic fallout of COVID-19, so when Yorba saw his neighbors struggling to get fresh food, he created the market box program to help.
"We had families now being quarantined with kids who are no longer going to school," he said. "We had families of compromised folks who could not make their way to the market.
"They got tired of eating canned foods and whatnot and they were wanting fresh food," he continued. "So, as a farmer in the local community, we quickly became kind of that number of source of fruit and vegetables."
Each week, volunteers help assemble and deliver dozens of boxes to food to those most in need.
"We really believe that we can't do this alone, that we can only do what we do by way of radical partnership with other organizations in the community that share the same values as us," Yorba said. "We bring our resources together, and when we do that, we have access to more resources and we have the ability to help more people."
It's that sense of community that the farm is working to spread to the neighborhood's most vulnerable residents
"We live in a community where these folks are the first affected, the most affected," Yorba said. "The need is not going away, in fact it's growing. We want to stay here for them as long as we need to."
More information about Lopez Urban Farm and ways to donate can be found on the group's website.