AURORA — Perla Espinoza watched her two toddler sons run around the wooden greenhouse at DeLaney Community Farm in Aurora. Fresh bunches of kale, yellow squash and heads of green and purple cabbage were inside the greenhouse, ripe and ready to take home.
Espinoza, 40, had just finished an hour of pulling weeds in the 3-acre community farm at 170 S. Chambers Road. Once she was done, she got a bag of the vegetables to take back to her home in northwest Aurora.
“Today we got some squash and cucumbers and peppers,” Espinoza said. “It’s wonderful. My children and I have been coming here for the last five years. I love it because I can teach my them where their food comes from.”
Espinoza can exchange an hour of tending the vegetable gardens at DeLaney for a bag of produce every week because she gets assistance through the federal Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, known as WIC.
For more than 10 years,DeLaney Community Farm — which is managed by the nonprofit Denver Urban Gardens — has partnered with the Tri County Health Department to provide Aurora-grown vegetables to WIC members in Aurora in exchange for an extra hand during harvest season, between July and October. Tri County Health funds the WIC program.
“Anyone who has WIC can come — they don’t have to sign up or register or anything,” said Heather DeLong, programs and outreach coordinator at DeLaney Community Farm. “WIC participants who work for one hour a week receive a standard share.”
A standard share is the smaller size of a vegetable bunch, which changes every week based on available produce in the garden. Large shares are double those portions.
“Right now, we have funding for 14 large shares, or 14 WIC families per workday,” DeLong said. “We have hit that max multiple times throughout the season already.”
WIC members aren’t the only beneficiaries of the organic foods produced at DeLaney. As a Community Supported Agriculture project, the farm is fueled by shareholders who pay an annual membership to sustain the operating costs of the farm and its urban farm partners.
DeLaney works with Ela Family Farms for fruit, Eastern Plains Natural Food Cooperative for chicken eggs, Western Colorado Honey and Dougan Farm in Strasberg for goat’s milk.
“All of our members can purchase shares from partner farms, which they deliver to DeLaney ,” DeLong said. In this way, we’re able to support other local farmers who are practicing the same standards, as well as increase food options and access to our members.”
Anyone can be a community shareholder; they just have to buy in. A standard share will cost $450 per season, and require about 5 giveback hours in the garden. Large shares cost $650 per season and 10 giveback hours.
In 2013, the DeLaney Farm served 217 shareholders and clocked 593 giveback hours.
Denver Urban Gardens manages 136 community gardens throughout Colorado, but DeLaney is the only community farm in the entire system.
“It’s a very unique, interesting program,” said Shannon Spurlock, community initiative coordinator with Denver Urban Gardens, “DeLaney is the only Community Supported Agriculture program in the country that has the WIC workdays partnership.”
She said Denver Urban Gardens has been systematically expanding community gardens into Aurora because many neighborhoods naturally embrace community supported agriculture as a viable, reliable grocery option.
“We look forward to this every week,” Espinoza said. “It’s all organic, and I cook different things depending on the kind of (produce) that we get that week.”
Megan Mitchell: 303-954-2650, or mmitchell@denverpost.com