Inspiration at its best comes by the example of others.  There is not a greater feat to witness than a fellow human being using life to enhance the lives of others.  While this part of life is not unusual at all, the fact remains we are less likely these days to catch sight of it as our hectic modern lives often leave out the ability to take notice of such feats and gestures.

It’s important to note that these inspiring people are all around us affecting many layers of our lives as well as the lives of others, in small and grand ways, begin to take notice and be inspired to do the same.

Dennis Derryck is a 70 year old mathematician and professor at The New School in NYC. He teaches Management & Urban Policy.  He has started a new model of CSA in the south Bronx, effectively creating a new way in which farmers and local residents see each other in general.  With a 92 acre farm in Schoharie County (about 2 hours away) he is undertaking a feat that is not so easy yet being welcomed by many, adding to the ability for the model to be successful sooner than expected.

For those of us in the food world, excitement about the local, sustainable, organic movement can cause us to forget the low income families here in the USA are often overlooked.  Here at Ger-Nis, we have been focusing on the low income families of our fair-traded goods abroad by bringing attention to what we do here and how it affects the poor who grow our food elsewhere. However, we often find that in our own country people forget about including the poor in our local food revolution.

Mr.  Derryck did not forget.   The South Bronx neighborhood is the poorest east of the Mississippi, filled with low income families with little or no access to fresh fruits and vegetables.  The obesity rates in the Bronx are at an all time high, as is childhood diabetes and almost every poor diet food related disease that exists.  This is why his CSA follows a new model.  Most CSA programs that have sprouted up all over our country have focused on the more affluent, higher income neighborhoods. Mr. Derryck’s CSA operates on a sliding scale and even has many subsidies for many families.  Since Mr. Derryck’s farm is not fully up and running in full yet, he has had to rely on the generosity of neighboring farms, farms who are the closest in proximity of the Bronx and farms who have taken initiative in the system in order to cause change and improvement in their communities.  Farms like that of Richard Ball & Schohaire Farms and  Frederick Wellington of Wellington Herb & Spice Farm have donated fresh produce so that the program get reach more people sooner.  We expect the amount of farms who are donating and participating to increase as the system just seems to work and inspiration just keeps breeding more.

Mr. Derryck envisions a future CSA where the member share economic citizens voting and running their CSA as their community needs.  It’s a truly remarkable story happening right here in our own back yard, one which has inspired me to take a new direction, and hopefully causing more inspiration to flow down our paths of connective-ness!