Everyone deserves access to healthy food. This is why we offer all of our produce and classes for whatever a person can pay.
Within our existing economic and food systems, many factors affect food workers’ wages, as well as the market value of fresh, healthy food and who has access to it. For people who want to dig deeper, we like this toolkit from Intersectional Environmentalism Media.
Solidarity means coming together to ensure everyone has access to what they need ~ in this case fresh, local, organic produce ~ at an affordable price for them.
How do we think about food needs at the individual/human level?
When buying food, we tend to think mostly about our own/our family’s needs and resources.
At EarthDance, with our Pay What You Can, flexible pricing, we invite you to engage with food with a solidarity mindset:
Think about your own needs and what other people in our shared community might need and have – or not have – access to. Consider the true value of fresh, healthy, local food.
Our food system in this country is not designed to ensure that everyone has equitable access to fresh, healthy food, or that food workers are paid a fair wage for the crucial work of feeding us.
We invite you to consider solidarity in deciding what you will pay – whether for produce, a class or workshop:
Consider paying less if you:
Spend time worrying about securing the things you need
Don’t have reliable transportation to fresh food
Are supporting dependents
Have significant medical debt or don’t have health insurance
Consider paying retail-value or more if you:
Spend little time worrying about securing necessities
Own your own home
Have retirement/investment accounts/inheritance
Have significant discretionary income – travel, dining out
Have a relatively high degree of earning power (or other privileges you may have associated with race, gender, citizenship status, class background, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical ability)
To take a deeper dive into our Pay What You Can approach, check out Chapter 4 of our Virtual Farm Tour!
Where to find our produce for whatever you can pay:
The EarthDance Pay What You Can Farm Stand at 233 S. Dade Ave. Ferguson, Missouri 63135 on Fridays 3-6pm and Sundays 11am-3pm, May through November.
The Ferguson Farmers Market at 501 S. Florissant Rd. Ferguson, Missouri 63135 on Saturdays 8am-12Noon.