"Nonprofit Ma'alot Farms sits tall on a hill in Los Gatos like the Garden of Eden, bearing hundreds of pounds of produce that will be donated to food banks and kitchens to help feed people facing food insecurity. According to Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, 1 in 6 people in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties face food insecurity. In light of the news that President Donald Trump is gutting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Ma'alot Farms serves as an alternative to single-stream funding to feed people, said executive director Shoshana Ohriner."
"Our main purpose here is to grow more food to feed more people, but to do it in a way that feeds the land as opposed to stripping the land and to do it in away that has the flexibility and resilience to withstand the upcoming changes in climate and the world and all the things that are unpredictable, Ohriner said."
"The farm's name comes from Shir-ha-ma'alot from Psalms, which means Songs of Ascent. This idea of ascent literally shapes the landscape and philosophy of the farm. Ohriner and her husband Philip founded the farm together. They had previously served as rabbis at Congregation Beth David in Saratoga. With help from Ohriner's parents, they purchased the land that would become Ma'alot Farms in 2017. The land had previously been an abandoned walnut grove with poison oak crawling through dead tree branches."
Ma'alot Farms cultivates crops on a Los Gatos hill and donates hundreds of pounds of produce to food banks and kitchens to help people facing food insecurity. The farm uses sustainable, regenerative agricultural practices to provide a diversity of foods year-round and to build soil health and resilience against climate change. The project serves as an alternative source of assistance amid cuts to federal nutrition programs. Founders Shoshana and Philip Ohriner purchased and rehabilitated an abandoned walnut grove in 2017, installed water systems by 2022, and planted a thousand fruit and nut trees with plans for continued expansion.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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