Youth with Austin Harvest help get healthy groceries to seniors on West Side with Beyond Hunger partnership
Youth from Austin Harvest, a student-led fresh produce market at 423 N. Laramie Ave., have teamed up with Beyond Hunger — a hunger-relief nonprofit headquartered in Oak Park that has been helping feed people in need in Cook County and Chicago since 1978 — for the project. The partnership began about a year ago.
Keith Tankson, 19, is the founder of Austin Harvest.
"Austin Harvest is a fresh produce market, also a youth entrepreneurship, where we, you know, serve our community using fresh produce and flowers," Tankson said.
CBS News Chicago visited as Tankson took care of the donated produce. He assembled boxes full of bananas, green onions, celery, Cuties Mandarin oranges, apples, ginger.
"We're making sure everything is being used," Tankson said.
Tankson noticed a need in the Austin neighborhood when he as just a freshman in high school.
"We're a food desert here in Austin," he said.
Tankson came up with an idea for a fresh produce market in his neighborhood.
"These are things that's a necessity in our community that should've been here planted from the start," he said.
Through the partnership, Beyond Hunger has purchased thousands of pounds of produce from Austin Harvest to use in its home delivery program. Austin Harvest has also been donating any unsold produce from its market.
"When we do give away for donations, it still looks just as fresh as when we first got it," said Tanskson.
Tamiko Saame of Beyond Hunger helps coordinate the free deliveries.
"There are a lot of seniors. Some are disabled adults," said Saame. "So we bring the groceries to them."
Partnering together, Austin Harvest and Beyond Hunger have rescued almost 17,000 pounds of food in the last year.
"Everything is community-oriented," said Tankson. "Nothing's being lost, or being, you know, thrown away."
Beyond Hunger said as a result of the partnership, they've seen marked increases in how many fruits and vegetables their meal delivery recipients are eating, more confidence from those recipients in managing their own diet, and an increase in reported overall health and wellbeing.
"Without Austin Harvest, we probably couldn't continue the secondary produce delivery," said Saame.
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