July 24, 2008
From garden to you: Library staffers enjoy fresh produce delivered to their workplace
Staffers in the UW Libraries have been enjoying fresh produce this summer, thanks to a new program they’ve signed up for called Farm Fresh@Work. Sponsored by Full Circle Farm in Carnation, the program allows employees to sign up to have boxes of produce delivered to them in the workplace.
The library participation in the program was started by John Bolcer, university archivist in the Special Collections Division. Bolcer lives in Lynnwood and said he’d been interested in community- supported agriculture programs for a while, but that by the time he arrives home, most drop-off sites are hard to reach or already closed. So when he learned that Full Circle offered work site drop off, he was immediately interested.
“I thought that sounded like an intriguing idea,” he said, “so I talked to some of my colleagues about it and a number of them said they were interested.”
Bolcer then cleared the idea with the libraries’ facilities people and obtained the sponsorship of the Libraries Staff Association, which oversees the staff lounge where the drop-offs are made. Deliveries began in mid-June.
Unlike some community-supported agriculture programs, which sell shares in the farm, Full Circle operates on a per-box system. Subscribers order a small, medium or large box of produce to arrive either weekly or biweekly. Each size box has the same 12 to 14 items in it, differing only in the quantity of each item. According to Full Circle, a small box is sufficient to feed two people for a week, and Bolcer said he’s found that to be a pretty good estimate.
“You can customize things a bit,” Bolcer said. “You can specify in your profile that you never want artichokes or asparagus or whatever you don’t like. And you can also get substitutes for up to five items in each box.”
It’s also possible to put a hold on your order when you go out of town. Besides produce, Full Circle offers a few other items, such as coffee, honey and eggs. All billing is taken care of by the farm.
So far, there are 19 staffers signed up for the program in the libraries, but Bolcer recognizes that the potential is huge (there are 334 employees in the libraries on the Seattle campus), so he may eventually have to cap the program. But for now, everybody is satisfied.
“A lot of us find we eat a lot more fresh vegetables than were in our diet before,” Bolcer said. “I’ve talked to a lot of the staff, and everyone’s really happy with the quality of the produce. And they love the fact that they can just pick it up from the lounge and go home.”
Bolcer said he can’t offer membership in the program to anyone outside the libraries staff because the produce is delivered to a restricted area. However, he said, because Full Circle is already delivering on campus, they have expressed interest in adding other drop-off sites here. There are none currently, although they do deliver to Children’s Hospital and to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Other community supported agriculture programs might be willing to deliver to a work site also.
Twelve people must be signed up to create a workplace drop-off site. To learn about Full Circle’s program, go to http://www.fullcirclefarm.com/atwork.html.
