Partridge Creek Farm: Taking a Bite Out of Our Challenges
If there’s one basic need most of us enjoy satisfying, it is for food. And the fresher and healthier that food is, the better off we’ll be. For most us here in the U.S., our food is shipped in, often from across the country and even across the globe, and we purchase it in supermarkets by the box and bag-full, some of which has added ingredients and processing we know little about.
While the number of small, community-supported farms in the Upper Peninsula supplying fresh, quality produce is growing, there’s still much room for improvement. Food security is an issue here, with the U.P.’s harsh climate and shorter growing season, longer distances for rural residents to large supermarkets with affordable fresh produce, and one-quarter of our children living in poverty (KIDS COUNT, 2016). In fact, our area has a significantly higher than average rate of obesity, diabetes, substance abuse and poverty. All of these issues point to the need for better health-physically, emotionally, and economically.
Partridge Creek Farm (PCF) aims to address this. Founder and director Dan Perkins describes, “Partridge Creek Farm is a community organization working on social issues through the backdrop of a farm.” The non-profit organization not only aims to increase local access to fresh, affordable, healthy food, but also to help us connect back to its importance both nutritionally and socially, teaching how to grow it in our challenging climate, and also how to prepare and preserve it. PCF intends to “invite the culture at large back in, especially those who’ve been disenfranchised, trapped, isolated.”