One of our most exciting responses is the pivot that the group of Bhutanese refugees have come up with! Besides reconnecting to their agricultural roots out at the farm, with Our Harvest Cooperative, this dynamic group is stepping up to fill a need in their community. Mount Airy--home to over 500 Bhutanese families--became a food desert when the neighborhood’s Kroger store closed last March. Now a group of 10-12 Bhutanese refugees are developing a new grocery delivery service to fill this need!
We have an opportunity to fully activate our Building Resilience in the Refugee Community of Cincinnati through Agriculture and Entrepreneurship program, which launched in October of 2019, with partners Our Harvest Cooperative, Catholic Charities of SW Ohio, RefugeeConnect, the City of Cincinnati Urban Agriculture Department, and Produce Perks (an organization that helps low income people access SNAP and reduce food insecurity).
The Grocery Delivery Co-op will begin in apartment complexes in Mt. Airy, where many Bhutanese neighbors live, as well as a pick-up site in the parking lot of a local public school. The Co-op will tap into Produce Perks which allows people on SNAP to double their produce dollar.
The refugee community we’re working with has been especially hard hit by a lack of access to healthy food options that were limited even pre-pandemic. Our Bhutanese community members feel an increased sense of urgency for launching their grocery delivery cooperative, due to the acute food security needs exacerbated by the pandemic.
