Farm-fresh produce available to UNMC community

By UNMC Public Relations

For the fourth consecutive year, UNMC students and employees can sign up to receive farm-fresh produce and dairy delivered weekly to campus this summer. The deadline is March 31 to sign up for the UNMC Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).

CSA will begin delivery the week of May 18.

Robin Jaeckel, administrative associate for the dean’s office in the College of Public Health, coordinates UNMC’s corporate membership.

“We bring the farmer’s market to you. The bags are conveniently delivered to the Maurer Center for Public Health building,” she said.

For the first time this year, participants can arrange to pick up their CSA bags at any Omaha area Hy-Vee.

A standard produce bag is $20 per week and a standard produce bag plus bi-weekly eggs and cheese is $25 per week. A small loaf of bread from Great Harvest and other local bakeries and organic eggs are available at extra cost. Participants also can order additional items available in the store from Tomāto Tomäto’s website and pick them up with their weekly bag.

The program, organized by Tomāto Tomäto, a year-round indoor Farmer’s Market in West Omaha, was first introduced in the fall of 2012 and UNMC was a test site. The program has grown in popularity among employees, from 37 to 109 participants, Jaeckel said. Now, Nebraska Medicine and Children’s Hospital are corporate sponsors as well.

Fresh food will be delivered to campus one day every week in the CSA bags until Aug. 29. “If you get something you don’t like or can’t have, you can swap it with another ‘bag buddy’ or donate it,” Jaeckel said. Co-workers can split the cost and contents of the bag if this is too much produce for them.

Tomāto Tomäto also inserts a weekly newsletter in the bags that identifies the farmers who supplied the produce and simple recipes for the produce. Jaeckel also emails the bag’s contents and more recipes to participants a few days before the weekly delivery.

Contact Jaeckel to obtain a UNMC corporate enrollment form.