Free boxes are back at Everyone’s Harvest this week, after federal funding whiplash.

Sara Rubin here, working on my grocery list for this week’s farmers markets. There’s a bounty of food produced right here in Monterey County, and we’re lucky to have plenty of places to buy it directly from the people who grow it with farmers markets every day of the week. 

Nonprofit Everyone’s Harvest, just one farmers market coordinator, hosts markets every day except Saturday. Last week, two of those were missing a key feature that many vendors and customers have come to depend on, caught up in the chaos from Washington, D.C. when it comes to federal funding freezes. 

The Farms Together program is a win-win for farmers/vendors and for customers. Using federal grant money, Everyone’s Harvest buys produce from vendors, giving them some guaranteed sales for the day. Then on a first-come, first-serve basis, customers line up to receive their free boxes packed with $26 worth of food; all that’s needed to qualify is proof that they are low-income, such as an EBT card or Medi-Cal card. Those customers may then shop around for other ingredients, and they bring foot traffic to the markets, helping bring the markets to life. 

In the 11 months since the Farms Together boxes started, Everyone’s Harvest has spent $300,000 buying produce from 14 local vendors, and has distributed 11,350 boxes. If you’ve been to either the Tuesday Alisal market in Salinas or the Thursday market in Seaside, you’ve seen the popularity—a long line for these 285 weekly boxes is a regular feature.

So it was a disappointment to Everyone’s Harvest Executive Director Hester Parker—and to the 14 farmers and hundreds of customers—to learn last week on Monday, March 10, that the program was suspended. Notice came from the grantees, the California Association of Foods Banks, to its subcontractors (including Everyone’s Harvest) that the $85 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture was frozen. It was supposed to last through 2026. 

The message on Monday was to stop delivering boxes. Then on Friday, five days later, the funding was reinstated—it was back to business as usual. “We're back in business this week,” Parker says. 

Of course, that’s good news for the farmers and customers who missed just one week, for now. But it’s also a sign of the times. What happens in Washington one day may change the next day; the constant chaos is keeping people on their toes, including small local farmers who are vendors to Everyone’s Harvest. 

“The uncertainty is really hard,” Parker adds. But of course, farmers are used to uncertainty—that’s part of the benefit of the boxes. “For farmers it's always a gamble to come to a market. It incentivizes them to keep coming; they know they have this guaranteed income at least at the start.”

The boxes will be back tomorrow (Tuesday) at the Alisal Certified Farmers Market from 3-4pm next to the WIC Office (632 E. Alisal St., Salinas) and Thursday from 5-7pm at the Seaside Certified Farmers Market at Laguna Grande Park. (The seasonal Alisal market begins in earnest on June 3; for now it’s just produce box pickup. The Seaside market runs form 3-7pm.)