Spencers provide produce for food pantries

Beverly and Guy Spencer, mother and son who are owners of the Runner Bean Ranch outside Palouse, are building a large 'cool-bot', a cold storage unit to store food for local pantries.

The Spencers already provide fresh produce for most of the food pantries in Whitman County.

Their vision for 2019 is to build a large storage space to keep produce for the local food pantries fresher, longer and to be able to have even more produce delivered to the pantries.

"The cool-bot will help us keep produce fresher longer between delivery dates," said Beverly.

Guy is a former carpenter and will be building the cold storage room himself, confident that he can get it finished on time. All he needs is one exterior wall, two insulated walls, the air conditioners and a computer.

"We have the perfect place to build it," said Guy, who plans to add it to the side of the implement shop. Before they can build the unit, they need a building permit for it.

After they get the building permit, Guy is hoping to have the project done by April 1.

The project is expected to cost about $4,000. Guy applied for a grant to provide the funds for the cold storage facility with the objective to benefit the farm and help some of the local food pantries store food between distribution dates while having as little environmental impact as possible.

"We really believe that farming and making nutritious food available to everybody in our community is a way to build our community," said Guy.

Guy applied for a cultivating change grant, a farm grant program that empowers the future of farming, through Greener Fields Together, a group that supports local farms.

The grant is awarded by public vote. Locals are asked to support the grant by voting at cultivatingchange.org.

"Vote early and often," Guy urged.

Guy is not comfortable with 'go-fund-mes', and didn't realize the grant was voter-based until he was already deeply into it.

"I just filled out the application, I clearly didn't read the fine print," he admits.

The program allows a person to vote once every 24 hours. The voting for the grant will be open until the end of the month.

Runner Bean Ranch grows asparagus, cucumbers, beans, carrots, garlic, onions, squash, beets, eggplant, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and kale with only inputs that are sustainable, most of which the farm can generate.

The ranch started selling produce at farmers markets, but their priorities shifted after the loss of a brother. Since then they have turned to how they could give back to the community.

"Farming has brought us closer to the things that really matter in life," said Guy.

Beverly and Guy decided to grow fresh nutrient-dense produce for Whitman County food pantries through the Farm to Food Pantry Initiative. The Spencers feel fresh produce is something people in the community really need and often find is out of their price range.