It began during the pandemic, when supply chains ruptured and grocery store shelves went bare. Roanoke nonprofits reached out to LEAP: Can you help us provide produce for the families we serve?

Local farmers were scrambling too, unsure of what to do with the food they had grown now that restaurants were shut down and no one quite knew how to connect with customers.

LEAP stepped into the void, creating a Community Produce Program, funded by donations from LEAP supporters and a patchwork of grants. With the money raised, LEAP purchased food from area farmers and then distributed the produce at no cost to a handful of community partners, organizations like Boys & Girls Clubs of Southwest Virginia, Casa Latina, and Child Health Investment Partnership of the Roanoke Valley (CHIP).

By every measure, CPP was a resounding success. From April to December 2020, LEAP paid nearly $42,000 to farmers and helped families put nourishing fruits and vegetables on their tables.

In time, the model shifted and the amount of food LEAP distributed grew. In 2022, LEAP partner 4P Foods, a mission-aligned regional food hub located in Warrenton, VA, applied for a US Department of Agriculture grant and asked LEAP to be the connector between 4P Foods and Roanoke. LEAP said yes, and expanded to include new partners like The Lion’s Share Food Pantry (located at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church).

With this grant, 4P aggregates fruits and vegetables from farmers within a 300-mile radius of Northern Virginia, and delivers the produce to LEAP. LEAP stores the food. Community partners pick up their produce weekly and distribute the food to their clients in the ways that work for them. This year, a Virginia Agriculture Food Assistance Program grant has provided even more money to purchase Virginia Grown agricultural products.

These days when the pallets of food arrive from 4P, they stand head high in The LEAP Hub. Our walk-in refrigerator – which once seemed so cavernous – is now, at times, packed to the ceiling.

From June through December 2023, more than $145,000 was paid to farmers for fruits and vegetables given to Roanoke families. That’s a 248 percent increase over LEAP’s initial investment. In 2024, those numbers are set to be even higher.

What does it all mean? As food prices have risen in Roanoke (like everywhere) and food assistance needs have expanded, LEAP is helping to make fresh fruits and vegetables available to families who may not be served by our other food access programs.

The state and federal funding that supports the CPP ensures that nutritionally vital apples and pears and carrots and tomatoes are available, even in emergency food settings. Also, these fruits and vegetables were grown by farmers in our state and region – not shipped in storage containers from around the world.

LEAP’s Community Produce Program is not as visible as our other work – our farmers markets, Mobile Market, and Community Store - and it is important work that we are proud to be a part of. CPP is yet another way that LEAP is using its existing infrastructure to increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables grown by farmers rooted in their communities.