Jamison’s Hidden Valley Farm chickens struggled this winter as snow covered the plants that the 1,200 birds typically graze on for nutrients, writes Emily Neil for WHYY.
Farm owner Eric Kretschman, looking for produce to supplement chicken feed, turned to the Warminster Food Bank for help and developed a symbiotic relationship in the process.
The food bank supplies hundreds of pounds of produce each month that are no longer fit for human consumption to the farm, which Kretschman and his team sort through. His chickens are then treated to an assortment of lettuce, small pieces of fruit, and other greens.
Additional goods and produce are also fed to the farm’s 25 pigs, who happily enjoy the feast. Anything not consumed by the animals, including the cardboard boxes the food comes in, is used for compost.
“Because we grow food so we know what it’s like,” Kretschman said. “Everything that goes into food that you see in the food store, there’s a lot of energy behind that. So it’s terrible when it goes basically into a landfill.”
The farm, in turn, gives back to the food bank, donating 30 fresh eggs a week, which have been a huge help to the nonprofit.
“You can imagine the impact to our budget it was to get farm-fresh Grade A brown eggs for free,” said Brian Foedisch, the food bank’s director of operations. “It’s a perfect relationship.”
Read more about how Jamison’s Hidden Valley Farm and the Warminster Food Bank are helping each other in WHYY.
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