This month, Sun Produce is thrilled to introduce another pillar of the community – James Lang. James Lang, Farm to School Coordinator at Concordia Charter School, leads the school’s garden program, teaching students about food systems and environmental stewardship. He also manages community outreach, connecting families to fresh, local produce through the FarmRaiser Farm Bag program. Established in 2019 with support from Sun Produce Cooperative, the program provides students hands-on experience with food while raising funds for the school’s sixth-grade science camp. By participating in initiatives like Double Up Food Bucks, Concordia makes healthy produce more accessible and affordable for families. For James, the program is not only about fundraising, but also about strengthening community ties, supporting local farmers, and empowering people to make thoughtful choices about the food they eatBelow, James Lang shares his experiences and perspectives on the FarmRaiser program at Concordia Charter School:
Could you briefly describe yourself and your role at Concordia Charter School?
I am in my mid-twenties, I’m very passionate about the environment and our food systems, and bringing our youth back to their roots, I guess you could say, of being fascinated by the world around them. I’m the Farm to School Coordinator for Concordia Charter School, so I run the garden here, I teach garden lessons to all of the grades, and I do a lot of other stuff in between, like helping run the school, and then I do a lot of community outreach and work within the community, whether that be providing resources, providing access to the garden, or just providing more access to food through groups like Sun Produce Co-op.
How long has the farmraiser program been operating there, and how did it start?
I believe it started in 2019, and it was started by the person who held my position who started this program here, Rachel Gomez Acosta. She worked with Sun Produce to launch the program here, and it’s been going on ever since. We did have a lot more subscribers when it began. We dropped off a little during COVID, and we’re just now starting to pick it back up again and get more subscribers. The Farm Bag program is really awesome because it gives the kids an opportunity to not only just see the fresh food and learn about where it comes from, but then they get to also pack the bags. The program also provides us 10% of the sale of each bag so that with money that we make from the program, supports our sixth graders to go to science camp at the end of the school year.
What does the process of Farm Bag distribution look like from your site?
For us, it’s pretty simple. We just do it Thursdays because we only operate Monday through Thursday – we don’t have school on Fridays. So, we offer our farm bag pickups twice a month on Thursday from 2:30-4:30. (If that timeframe doesn’t work with customers, I try to work with them to figure out a pickup time that does.)
Do you offer the DoubleUp program?
We are part of the DoubleUp program, so for anyone who pays for their bag with SNAP/EBT, their price is half-off.
I am aware that Farmraiser sites are able to use 10% of the funds raised towards a cause of their choice – how are these funds used at Concordia?
Since we are a charter school, we’re technically not in the public school system. All the public schools have trips as their sixth graders finish the school year: they go on a science camp trip right before they graduate. At Concordia, we take that 10% fundraising component of the Farm Bag program and we put it to the side during the whole school year. Then at the end of the year, we are able to put it towards the funds for our sixth grade science camp trip. Usually the sixth graders go up to Prescott and they stay at either a camp or an AirBnB, and we go out to different science-focused places. Last year, we went to an animal sanctuary, and we went on a nature hike where there were a lot of educational signs giving information about the area and that’s a big part of their science grade.
Why do you continue the program?
The program is really important because it not only gives us that money for the kids, but we’re providing fresh affordable produce to the community, and I think that’s something that most people – especially in an urban area – don’t really have access to (especially at an affordable price). It also gives us connectivity with farmers as well as Cindy and everyone at Sun Produce, so we get a little bit more of a community building process with them. We have a decent relationship with a lot of the farms and a lot of the other people we work with through the Farm Bags. It is kind of like a community web, and it brings us all together, and we can share resources. It helps in so many ways because it’s not just about the kids and the people getting the bags, but it brings a whole other community aspect to it.
Why do you find it important to prioritize local fresh produce?
I think the most important thing about the food system and people understanding our food system is just knowing where their food comes from, because that gives people so much empowerment of knowing what you put in your body. You only have one body, and whatever you put in it is eventually going to come back around in some way or another. So, knowing that we’re putting the best food we can into our bodies and knowing exactly where it comes from, and the farmer who grew it, knowing that your morals and values match up with the person who’s growing your food, is something that I think is priceless. Giving people the power to choose what they put in their body, and not stressing them financially, is the most important thing for me.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Feeding people is something that a lot of times, like when you talk about charity, or foundations, or giving back to the community, a lot of times, the food side of it flies under the radar, but I think it’s one of the most important and beneficial things you can do for someone, is giving them access to food, because it’s a very privileged thing that most people in this country just look at food and think that they can just go to the grocery store and get it, but for more than half of the population, that’s not really the case.