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Farmers Help Supply Yolo County Food Bank With Fresh Produce

YOLO COUNTY (CBS13) — Farmers and food banks are teaming up for free in Yolo County.

Farmers came up with a way to make sure the food bank always has fresh food to feed the hungry.

Shane Tucker owns this acre-and-a-half and he wanted to produce fresh produce for those in need.

"Seventeen-and-a-half percent of Yolo County's population is food insecure. That means they don't know where their next meal is coming from. And for a lot of those people, even the meals that they get are not the meals we want them eating."

So now his land is a garden for the Food Bank of Yolo County.

"In the early stages you kept thinking, 'Could this really happen? Can this really happen?'"

And it has. They're just a few weeks away from harvesting the first crops, from beets to potatoes to carrots. At supermarket prices, these crops are worth tens of thousands of dollars.

"It's pretty darn fresh," said Kevin Sanchez.

It will be picked and distributed in two to three days.

Ready for families in need, just as Shane is ready to watch what he's already planted transform the ground and lives.

"If we make this work this year, this will be great to give us a pattern that we can expand and grow.

Giving through growing. And it's a gift the food bank didn't see coming.

"It's powerful, it really is."

Shane doesn't get paid, but he will be able to use this as a tax writeoff.

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