The Marana Community Food Bank’s Heritage Farm, 12375 N. Heritage Park Drive, won a fruit orchard this morning by placing second in the nationwide Communities Take Root contest sponsored by Dreyer’s Fruit Bars.
Dreyer’s has been hosting the monthly contest online, and at the end of each month, the five nominated organizations with the most votes receive an orchard.
The Marana Heritage Farm garnered nearly 27,000 votes in June.
The farm plans to plant a mixture of different fruit trees, likely including plums, peaches, apricots, apples, figs and maybe citrus, said farm manager Cie’na Schlaefli. The planting date is yet to be determined.
“We’re pretty excited,” Schlaefli said. “I’m overwhelmed by the community support we received. It goes to show people want good food in their community.”
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The farm will use its new one-acre orchard to provide produce to its Child Nutrition Program. The orchard also will be used as a demonstration area where farm staff can teach about raising fruit trees in the desert, including discussions of planting, pruning, appropriate varieties, watering, nutrition, harvesting and processing.
A new round of voting began today that includes organizations that haven’t won yet. There’s still another Arizona organization in the running, North Leupp Family Farms in Winslow.
That group works to revitalize traditional Navajo agriculture and alleviate diabetes among Navajos by encouraging healthy eating and lifestyles.
Go to www.communitiestakeroot.com to place a vote for one of the current contenders. People are encouraged to vote daily for the organization of their choice through the last day of each month.
The final month of voting for this year begins Aug. 1.
Contact reporter Shelley Shelton at sshelton@azstarnet.com or 807-8464.
