What is Bumper Crop Café?
Bumper Crop Café is a registered 501(C)(3) nonprofit organization, raising funds for the purchase a commercial food truck that will serve healthy, plant-based meals for free to Tucson residents facing food insecurity. While free-meal food trucks do exist in some major cities, there are none in the state of Arizona, which is among the top 10 states most affected by hunger.
Why We’re Cropping Up to Help
1) In Arizona 1 in 8 residents are at risk for food insecurity. One in 5 of these Arizonans are children. According TPCH (Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness) conservative estimates indicate a potential 30% increase in homelessness in Pima County due to Covid-19. There are currently an estimated 5,600 homeless youth in Pima County each day.
2) Healthy Communities Need Healthy Food. The inability to afford enough food to support an active, healthy lifestyle increases one’s risk of chronic disease. Children who live in food insecure families are also at higher risk for developmental impairment, learning difficulties, illness, hospitalization, and social and emotional challenges. Medical studies also show that strong immune systems are closely linked to an adequate supply of micronutrients to the body, and that deficiencies in micronutrients are linked to a weakened immune system, increasing one’s vulnerability to viral infection. We believe that everyone has a right to access health-promoting foods for strong immunity.
3) We believe that the antidote to the fear of scarcity (remember the panic buying and hoarding?) is to realize the abundance that is here for us right now and to share it with each other. Food scarcity is an illusion. There is presently enough food on Earth to feed everyone. Here in the US alone we have 72 billion lbs of surplus food each year. Unfortunately, this surplus ends up in the landfill while 54 million Americans may struggle with hunger this year. It is also noteworthy that 21% of fresh water is used for food production that is later discarded. The work of Bumper Crop Café is to alleviate immediate hunger while reducing wasted resources. Located in southern Arizona where 5.9 billion lbs. of produce travel through from Mexico annually, our name Bumper Crop means, “a large yield” or “excess”. Working with Borderland’s Produce Rescue, and growers and grocers with surplus, our free meal program is a living affirmation that:
There’s Enough Good to go Around.
There is a lie that acts like a virus within the mind of humanity. And that lie is, ‘There’s not enough good to go around. There’s lack and there’s limitation and there’s just not enough.’ The truth is that there’s more than enough creative ideas, There is more than enough power. There’s more than enough love. There’s more than enough joy. All of this begins to come through the mind that is aware of its own infinite nature. There is enough for everyone. If you believe it, if you can see it, if you act from it, it will show up for you. That’s the truth. –Rev. Michael Beckwith
We have more possibilities available in each moment than we realize. –Thich Nhat Hanh
4) Alleviating immediate hunger and providing avenues for heartfelt giving nourishes the minds, bodies, and spirits of our community. It draws our attention to the bountiful, the hopeful, and the joyful, to dignity, compassion, purpose, and grace. It abates isolation and affirms our oneness.
Many hungry kids report feeling ‘unwanted’ and ‘unloved’ as a result of hunger. The act of giving food transcends the physical and reaches into the child’s soul; it has lasting implications on who that child will grow up to be and how they will show love.
-Lisa Scarpinato of Kitchen on the Street, Phoenix, AZ
Eat good food to satisfy your body. Help others to satisfy your heart. -Rumi
Exciting Update!
We’ve partnered with YOUTH ON THEIR OWN (YOTO). Once we’re up and running, Bumper Crop Café will be setting up onsite where homeless youth within the Tucson community go for school supplies, hygiene products, and other graduation support. For the time in YOTO’s 35 years of service, hot meals will be served to their students!
