Matanuska Experiment Farm contributes to Mat-Su food security

November 6, 2020

Young potato pickers show off their treasures harvested during the Matanuska Experiment Farm's Community Potato Harvest. Photo courtesy of Cooperative Extension Service.

The Matanuska Experiment Farm and Extension Center contributes to the food security of Mat-Su area through several initiatives.

In addition to its vegetable and grain variety trials, the farm partners with Alaska Pacific University and Alaska Tilth, a nonprofit dedicated to improving food security and feeding those in need.

APU’s Spring Creek Farm uses the farm’s greenhouses to raise fresh produce for Alaska Tilth. Donations to Alaska Tilth also included 1,000 pounds of vegetables grown as part of the variety trials research, along with produce purchased from six area farmers, through a grant received by APU.

Each week during the summer, Adair Harman, a nutrition educator with the UAF Cooperative Extension Service’s SNAP-Ed program, organizes all the produce into donations. Recipients include area food banks, the Wasilla WIC (Women, Infants and Children) program and Kids Kupboard, a program that provides meals to kids 18 and under at 31 valley locations.

Produce donated and sorted at the Matanuska Experiment Farm is bagged and donated to the WIC program and food banks. Photo courtesy of Cooperative Extension Service.

This past summer, donations and food purchases to Alaska Tilth totaled 10,632 pounds, and more than 1,400 bags of produce with vegetable fact sheets, nutrition information and Extension recipes were donated to WIC and to food bank clients through the Alaska Tilth program. Altogether, Tilth vegetables were used in 70,000 meals distributed by Kids Kupboard.

The farm also provides space for 36 community gardens and staff planted 135 varieties of extra seed potatoes donated by the Alaska Plant Materials Center. Families were assigned harvest plots and, in early October, harvested 2,000 pounds of potatoes during the COVID-safe Community Potato Harvest. Representatives from Kids Kupboard and Frontline Mission harvested 400 more pounds.