Anchor Run CSA in Wrightstown met its membership goal with weeks to spare. Farmer and co-owner Derek McGeehan believes bare shelves at food stores are part of the reason CSAs are gaining popularity.
“You hear about shortages of various items at grocery stores, so I think food security is on people’s minds,” he said. “There's been more interest in getting your own seeds and growing your own plants, starting a garden, and even some people are buying chickens this year to raise.”
McGeehan noted membership was rolling along at a normal pace until about a month ago.
Related
“The pace of signups really accelerated, and we had to close registration about a week ago when we met our membership goal,” he added.
McGeehan is still working out the details as to how to distribute farm shares of produce to members. But Karen Vollmecke, farmer and operator of Vollmecke Orchards and CSA in West Brandywine, already has a plan.
Instead of reusable containers, Vollmecke is going back to using lots of plastic bags and boxes.
“In order to alleviate people's worries, we're going a little bit more, unfortunately, toward paper and plastic, and step away from sustainability,” she said, “but it seems like the necessary thing to do at this time.”
The less sustainable packaging helps move things along quickly with less handling.
“This season, anyway, we're going to pre-bag things, pre-box what everybody gets in their share,” she added.
As for membership, Vollmecke said she’s seeing a lot of new faces, but some long-time members are not signing up. She credits that to the financial uncertainty of the pandemic.