Lufa Farms is a local Montreal-based food and produce subscription service working with the Lufa Farms Foundation which aims to directly address food insecurity in the city. We spoke with Public Relations Coordinator Callie Giaccone to learn more about their Direct Giving Program which helps family and community members who face food precarity in the area.
Describe your charity/non-profit/volunteer work in a few sentences.
At Lufa Farms, we’re dedicated to giving back through our Lufa Farms Foundation. Our flagship initiative is the Direct Giving Program, which provides approximately 1000 individuals facing food insecurity with direct access to weekly baskets of fresh food delivered to their doorstep. Each family receives an average of $200 weekly credit, along with a 25% discount on all fruits and vegetables. By using our own infrastructure and partnering with local nonprofits, we operate at no extra cost and can be 100% efficient in helping our community, making sure every dollar contributed is used in full to help feed a family in need.
What problem does it aim to solve?
We launched the Direct Giving Program in 2020, the year the world was turned upside down. With food insecurity becoming an even greater concern, we challenged ourselves to find a way to give as many individuals and families as possible direct access to fresh, local, and responsible food.
When did you start/join it?
We’ve been running this program for just under three years, and our foundation was officially launched one year ago.
How has it changed since?
In the first year, the Direct Giving program was able to support approximately a hundred families. Since then, we’ve established an entire foundation, and our Direct Giving Program continues to experience substantial growth each year. We now support approximately 1000 individuals and we have received a total of $1,663,326 in contributions, with people continuing to donate every day.
What more needs to be done?
There has been a 30% increase for food support in 2023 in Quebec. We aim to build a new donation channel with daily picked fresh veg from our indoor farm surplus. We also want to support further families by increasing awareness, raising more funds, and expanding our collaborations with additional nonprofit organizations with our Direct giving program. Our goal is to make an even more significant impact on the local community and extend our reach even further.
Where can we follow you?
You can stay updated with our activities on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or visit our website and Direct Giving page.
PAY IT FORWARD: What is an awesome local community organization you love?
There’s so many amazing projects in and around Montreal. We’d like to shoutout The Depot Community Food Centre – a community-based non-profit that works collaboratively with other community partners to address issues of food security in NDG and the surrounding areas.
