As we move through the last stretch of summer, we want to share where this year has taken us, and it has been a big one. So far in 2026, Real Food CT has moved more than 171,000 pounds of fresh, locally grown food to the pantries, meal sites, and shelters that feed our neighbors, already more than we delivered in all of last year, and the season is not over.
The need has rarely been greater. Recent cuts to SNAP have left our partner pantries busier than ever, with more families turning to them for help and fresh produce among the hardest things to keep in stock. Closing that gap is what drives us, and this year we have worked at it four different ways: we rescue good food before it goes to waste, buy directly from local farms, grow our own, and get all of it to the families who need it, fast and fresh. Here is how each piece is going.
Gleaning and Surplus Pickups
Our gleaning and surplus program is the engine, and this summer it has been running most days of the week. Generous farm partners invite us into their fields to harvest what is left after their main pick, and we run rapid pickups that rescue good produce which would otherwise go to waste. It is hands on, it fights food waste, and it puts the freshest possible food on a pantry shelf, often the same day. Word is spreading, too. New farms keep reaching out once they hear what we can do with their surplus, and every one of them expands how much food we can move. Want to get your hands in the dirt with us? Sign up to volunteer.
Institutional Surplus
Some of the biggest opportunities arrive by the truckload. Through partnerships with regional and national food recovery organizations like Boston Area Gleaners, The Farmlink Project, and Food Rescue US, we take in large shipments of surplus produce, once as much as 38,000 pounds in a single delivery, and coordinate the logistics to divide and share that food across our entire pantry network. Since May we have completed five of these large deliveries, and this is one of the most promising parts of our work. The potential to aggregate serious volume and spread it across dozens of partners is enormous.
Buying Local: The LFPA Program
This year we added a new tool: buying food, not just rescuing it. Through the Connecticut Department of Agriculture’s Local Food Purchase Assistance program and our partnership with the Northwest CT Food Hub, we now purchase fresh produce directly from Connecticut farms on behalf of our food access partners. We are three months into purchasing, and so far we have moved $25,000 to 10 different local farms, many of them the same partners who also donate to us. The grant covers the cost, our team handles pickup and delivery, and pantries choose the items that work best for the people they serve. Farms get paid, pantries get the freshest produce on a regular schedule, and lasting relationships get built between them.
Our Community Farms in Newtown
Our two community farms in Newtown are home base for everything we do. They are where our team and our volunteers gather, where the work is planned, and where we grow thousands of pounds of fresh food across both sites each season. Just as important, they are where community happens. Hundreds of volunteers, from neighbors down the road to corporate groups from across the region, have come out this year to plant, weed, harvest, and pack alongside our small team. Fall planting is already underway, and there is no better time to get outside and be part of it.
Join Us
We are a small team doing big things, and we genuinely cannot do it alone. With crisp fall weather right around the corner, it is the perfect time to get involved. Whether you volunteer in a field, donate to keep our trucks rolling, or come out to an event, you become part of getting real, fresh food to the neighbors who need it most. It makes a real difference, and it is a lot of fun.
