Non-profit buys 15-acre property to grow fresh produce for Madison food pantries

TOWN OF MIDDLETON, Wis. (WMTV) - An organization dedicated to providing fresh food to area food pantries now has a property to call their own, allowing them to expand their reach.

Madison Area Food Pantry Gardens (MAFPG) now owns 15 acres of land next to the Pope Farm Conservancy, which is what the non-profit has named ‘Forward Garden.’

Long-time volunteer Katie Schmitt grew up on a farm in Minnesota. She said her and her fellow volunteers find joy in providing nutrition security for their community.

“We’re doing that in a way that supports the community which I love. I’ve grown up giving away food that we grow in a garden at home. I’ve grown up supporting my community in this way, so to move again, to a large city, and continue to be able to do that with like-minded individuals who volunteer right alongside of me, how impactful,” Schmitt said.

In addition to the land purchase, the non-profit also announced the start of a $500,000 Phase II Capital Campaign that will implement three sustainable farming initiatives on the property.

“We have new soil carrying practices that are going into place this year, soil conditioning practices. We’re investing in drip irrigation, which is huge for protecting and really valuing the resource that is water. And we also are seeing a growth in our composting efforts, we started that last year and it’s been great, we’ve collected materials from local businesses in town and composted their food waste,” she said.

Farm Manager Matt Lechmaier moved back home to Wisconsin after living in California.

“I had an organic farm and I served about 25 families annually with the CSA and you can grow almost anything, any day of the year there,” Lechmaier said. “But moving back here I didn’t know what to expect and I was really pleasantly surprised at how well a lot of the crops have done that I was used to growing in California.”

According to the organization, volunteers have been renting out the land they purchased. Lechmaier said there were limitations on what they could grow when they were renting the property.

“Now that we own it we can expand and do some perennial crops. We already have garlic in the ground, that’s a biannual crop, and then we also have some strawberries, but we’re thinking orchard crops, such as apples and pears and cherries, maybe grapes, blueberries. Those are all possible to grow here, and we haven’t been able to till recently now that we have a longer horizon on the property than we had before.”

Ultimately, the organization said they hope to increase production, varieties, and distribution of fresh produce following the purchase of the property.

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