Stop By at the New Orangevale-Fair Oaks Food Bank Farmstand!

There’s a new spot for you to buy fresh-picked vegetables and it benefits a good cause at the same time. The charming Food Bank Farmstand sells a wide variety of vegetables every Saturday morning at the corner of Main and Orangevale Avenue next to the Orangevale-Fair Oaks Food Bank.

Walking up to the stand, you actually enter the farm and see row after row of crops bursting with lush, colorful vegetables. It feels different, and maybe better, than a farmers market because you’re standing right at the spot where the vegetables are being grown and picked from the ground. It even has that farm-fresh scent of basil and tomatoes.

Several years in the making, the Farmstand is adjacent to the Food Bank Farm — two unique features that other food banks in our region don’t have. Every Saturday from 8 a.m.-11 a.m., you can drop by and get some nutritious veggies for your family grown by Lacey Yuke, Food Bank Farm Manager, and her amazing team of volunteers.

“Lacey planted okra right here, so these will get really tall and beautiful and have really pretty flowers, and then she's doing sweet potatoes here. I'm really excited for when those are ready. Her lettuce crops are ready every couple of weeks, and then our basil and some of our herbs are just really blowing up,” said Angela Lee, Director of Foundation Operations for the Orangevale-Fair Oaks Community Foundation, one Saturday morning while helping out at the Farmstand.

While the Food Bank Farm grows the vegetables, the Foundation works with local farms for fresh fruit supplies, such as peaches and strawberries. The Food Bank Farm hopes to have its own fruits in the future. The Foundation is already working with other nearby empty lots and backyards to plant mini orchards to help supply the farm.

The Farmstand was built last year after the Orangevale-Fair Oaks Community Foundation was part of a $250,000 grant from Republic Services and Rebuilding Together Sacramento. The Farm was created back in 2020 when the owner of a vacant lot next to the Food Bank agreed to lease the one-acre plot to the food bank. In 2021, volunteers turned that hardened lot into a place to grow.

“The land was a parking lot with gravel and rocks. We got in there with tractors and tillers to move the gravel to roads, and then we brought in lots of topsoil and compost to create the planting areas we have now,” said Foundation Executive Director Brad Squires.

It’s now a thriving, bountiful farm you can walk through, surrounded by colorful murals by local artists and interpretive signs that teach children about growing plants. Farm Camp, which is held over three weeks, is a popular event for children each summer. 

The Farm is being supported with a generous donation of 16 tons of compost from a local recycle company and by Casa Roble High School students, who grow vegetable sprouts in its greenhouses. A new covered high tunnel donated by the Fair Oaks Rotary Club is for seedlings and produce needing more coverage.

“Over the last four years, they've been able, with community help and support, to turn it into the Food Bank Farm. And so our goal is with the veggie box subscription and the Farmstand being open to sell veggies, that it'll keep the farm sustainable as we grow, and then with that money being donated, we can expand our programs also,” Lee said.

The Orangevale-Fair Oaks Food Bank served 46,959 people in 2024 - 10,000 more than in 2023. Stop by the Farmstand, walk around the bountiful farm, buy some tomatoes and zucchini and help our neighbors in need.

“Our farm is flourishing!” says Lee. 

The Farmstand is located at 6401 Main Ave, Orangevale, CA 95662. 

• Judy Farah