Feeding the Local Community:

Samantha Jany always wanted to be a farmer. When she got married to Rodger Jany in 2004, she married into a family farm business that had been growing and selling Christmas trees and other products in central New Jersey since 1920. At Simonson Farms, just outside of Princeton, Sam helped out with the farm for a couple of years until she decided to launch her own part of the business: growing vegetables. She provided vegetable boxes to local families through a CSA program as well as selling some of her vegetables at wholesale markets.

As the statewide lockdown due to coronavirus started in March of 2020, Sam saw a way to help her community by providing local vegetables, fruits, grains, and eggs in the safest way possible. Although her crops weren’t in yet, she could get produce from nearby farms at the wholesale markets. Sam put these fresh vegetables and fruits together to make weekly “Be Well” boxes for the people in the community who didn’t want to risk going to the grocery store. For $25, customers could prepay online, and a couple days later, pick up the 8-10 fruits and vegetables at the farm.

The first week, after announcing the Be Well boxes on Facebook and Nextdoor.com, Sam had 40 orders for people to drive through the farm stand, hold up their names to their car window, and get their fresh produce order put right into their car trunks. In addition to the fruits and vegetables, Sam has fresh eggs from her chickens, heirloom popcorn that she dries herself, fresh milled wheat and rye flour from her crops, and honey from another local farmer that shoppers could add to their orders.

The second week, over 120 people ordered Be Well boxes. Each week, customers get a different assortment of about 8-10 fruits and vegetables, giving a healthy variety at a very affordable price. The “boxes” were actually put into plastic grocery bags for ease of transport, and with her face mask and gloves on, as well as a friendly smile in her eyes, she delivered these straight into the cars for her customers.

Not only were local people getting some of the freshest vegetables and fruits, with very little time from farm to market to car trunk, but they could get more than just produce. People started to ask about dairy, so Sam worked her farm contacts to find a broker who could deliver fresh milk from nearby farms straight to her stand for distribution. She also located some of the freshest local cheeses and yogurts, including cheddar, mozzarella, feta, and ricotta. Now, she could provide many of the fresh farm products that people needed: much fresher and safer than going to any grocery store. The demand became so great that she had to tap another neighboring farm for more eggs than her hens could lay in a week.

For every week since the lockdown, Sam Jany and Simonson Farms have been providing a once-a-week “Be Well” box pickup on Saturdays, with customers pre-paying online so she knows how much to buy and sort. Simonson Farms has been consistently feeding 120 to 170 customers a week. As the food chain disruptions and fears of infection look to continue, Sam plans to keep supplying these delightfully fresh products to the local community in a safe outdoor setting.

Now, Sam has expanded the Simonson Farms website to include more custom ordering, allowing people to purchase the whole “Be Well” box or just the vegetables and fruits they want. All the extras, including dairy and cheeses can be added on. Soon Sam hopes to add local fresh bread and seafood to the mix. She will be offering drive-through pickup on Saturdays, or delivery in the neighborhood on Fridays. In addition, the products will be available at her farm store self-serve during the week, and with a cashier on weekends. Driving up to the stand and getting so much of what they need is a boon to the residents of Plainsboro, Cranbury, West Windsor, Princeton, and other local towns. And what a great way to help secure a reliable local food supply chain that will keep the farmers, the community, and the economy healthy on a local level, no matter what happens to the worldwide markets.