Developer Gary Gorman, chair of the board of directors and former CEO of Gorman & Company, lives on a 240 acre farm in Oregon. After observing residents of his affordable housing properties — kids, in particular — starting their day waiting for the bus with a bag of chips, he started thinking about how he might help the residents access healthy food.
“I started growing vegetables on my farm myself but I’m not very good at it,” Gorman said. “My wife would tease me, ‘Any moron can grow zucchini, and that’s what I grew.’”
To scale up the variety and amount of food produced, Gorman turned to Tom Bryan, part of the teaching faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Plant & Agroecosystem Sciences, to manage Gorman Community Farm.
The farm’s fresh produce is harvested by Bryan and a team of two others in the morning, then dropped off to three sites that serve six affordable housing units that afternoon. The nonprofit Healthy Food for All takes care of pickup and delivery. The produce is free to residents.
The developments served include Carbon at Union Corners and Valor on East Washington Avenue, a housing complex designed for veterans and their families. The farm also donates to unaffiliated groups like the Oregon Area Food Pantry and the Salvation Army.
