Shalom Farms to benefit from Tire Dealer Humanitarian award donation

RICHMOND, Va. — It really didn't take long for Mark Smith to decide which of the four major charities he supports would benefit from his latest accolade.

Mr. Smith, owner of four Midas of Richmond automotive service shops, has been named this year's Tire Business Tire Dealer Humanitarian, given to a tire dealer or retreader who goes above and beyond for the betterment of his or her community. In addition to the Humanitarian medal, Tire Business gives the winner $2,500, to be donated to the charity of the recipient's choice.

Mr. Smith is donating $5,000 to Shalom Farms, a regional food access and community development project.

Yes, you read that right. Mr. Smith chose to donate the $2,500 from Tire Business, then match that himself.

That donation could turn into even more for Shalom Farms, the nonprofit that sits on a 15-acre site south of Richmond, with about eight acres used for growing vegetables and fruits.

Shalom Farms Executive Director Dominic Barrett plans to use the funds as "challenge money," i.e., challenge other donors to donate, and up to $5,000 of that will be matched.

"There are so many places in town who are doing valuable work," Mr. Barrett said. "When you don't get a grant or a donor chooses not to support you, it's hard to be too upset because you know there's a lot of people trying to do good work.

"We just try to be as good stewards of those who choose to invest in us as possible," he said. "We talk about being good stewards of the land and good stewards of people who invest in our work."

Shalom Farms was founded in 2008 by a group from the United Methodist Urban Ministries of Richmond (UMUMR) who recognized the need to use rural resources to grow healthy food and serve urban Richmond better. Its mission is to "work with communities to ensure access to healthy food and support to live healthy lives," particularly to people in communities with little to no access to these foods.

In its first year, Shalom Farms grew 16,000 of pounds of food. Today, the nonprofit grows 230,000 pounds of fresh food a year, at a different, larger site, donated by another Richmond-area philanthropist via a 10-year lease.

Shalom Farms operates on a $700,000 budget with a full-time staff of nine and a volunteer staff of 6,000. It distributes much of its produce through other agency partners, including Feed More, which Mr. Smith also supports.

It features two unique programs: the healthy retail program and the prescription program.

As part of the healthy retail program, personnel drive a refrigerated truck stocked with fresh produce from the farm to areas where residents have little or no access to healthy foods. The products are sold at significantly reduced prices, Shalom also does health screenings, offers kitchen supplies and incentives for shopping.

As part of the program, Shalom works with convenient stories and gas stations in neighborhoods without grocery stores to provide healthy food options. It makes deliveries twice a week, and it offers in-store tasting and food demonstrations.

"We twist owners' arms to make sure they're providing consistent quality foods," Mr. Barrett said. "We do that by offering them a fridge that they have to keep in the front half of the store and only stock healthy foods."

The prescription program, now in its sixth year, works with up to 15 households at a time, for 10 to 12 weeks. Clients get a prescription of fresh food equal to one serving per day for the household. Shalom also does health screening cooking demonstrations, too.

Shalom is working with young adults just out of high school who are experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity, according to Mr. Barrett. The program also monitors the participants' health.

Mr. Barrett said he and his staff know eating healthy might be difficult for some. Their aim is to make it as easy as possible.

"We are not purists about this thing," he said. "If eating more fruits and vegetables means chopping them up and throwing them on your frozen pizza, we'll start there. We believe that's a victory. Other efforts around the country probably have a different approach to that."

Mr. Barrett raves about the marketing Mr. Smith has done for Shalom Farms, raising its community awareness exponentially.

"As valuable as Mark's financial assistance is to us over the years, the ads have been incredible," Mr. Barret said. "We don't go a day without someone coming up to a staff member telling them, 'I saw you on TV. I love what you guys are doing.'

"That can't be understated or undervalued. That kind of visibility, especially for a small organization like us that has a small marketing and fundraising... We don't do any active volunteer recruitment in terms of trying to advertise or do big email blasts. It's word of mouth."

Mr. Smith said he wants Shalom Farms to continue to grow, perhaps to a multi-million dollar budget. That's part of his motivation in making his most recent donation.

"The return is going to be that much bigger in Richmond," Mr. Smith said. "That matters to me."