For clinics and pregnancy centers
Free produce for the families you already serve.
We grow vegetables in Union County, North Carolina and drive them to your clinic, washed and packed. You hand them out however already works for you. There is no cost, no paperwork, and nothing to store long-term.
What you get
A delivery, on a schedule you set.
Seasonal produce bundles
Whole, raw vegetables picked the morning they reach you. Contents change with the season: spring greens, summer tomatoes and squash, fall collards and sweet potatoes.
A fixed day and time
You tell us what fits your schedule. We deliver on that day, or we tell you in advance that we cannot.
A contents card in every bundle
Each bundle lists what is inside, the date it was picked, and how to wash it. Available in English, Spanish, or both.
Volunteers, not obligations
We bring our own people to grow, pack, and drive. We are not asking your staff to do anything beyond receiving a delivery.
What we ask of you
One conversation, then a delivery slot.
We know what an unfunded request costs a clinic, so we have tried to make ours as small as it can be while still being useful.
We do not ask for funding, staff time beyond receiving a delivery, storage space, patient information, or a formal agreement.
Tell us what you can use
Anything you would rather we did not send, we will not send.
Give us a day and a contact
One person we can reach if a delivery needs to change.
Hand the bundles out
You decide who receives them, using whatever you already know about the families you serve. We never see that information.
Food safety
How we handle produce.
Our protocol follows FDA guidance for selecting, washing, and storing fresh produce. The full written version is available before any first delivery, and we will walk through it with you.
Picked and delivered the same morning
Harvested in the cool of the day, delivered within four hours of packing, in a cooler when it is warm out.
Washed in plain running water only
Never soap, detergent, or produce wash. FDA guidance is explicit that these can be absorbed into produce.
Whole and raw, never cut or cooked
We do not process food. No sprouts, no melons, no unpasteurised anything, no home-canned goods.
Clean hands, clean containers, no exceptions
Twenty seconds with soap before handling. Nobody who has been ill in the last 48 hours goes near a bundle. Containers are never reused between deliveries.
Our produce list and safety protocol are pending review by our partner clinic. We will not describe them as approved until they are.
Privacy
We never learn who receives a bundle.
This is deliberate, and it is structural rather than a promise. Bundles go to your staff and your staff distribute them. We hold no list, take no names, and photograph no one.
It is also why we work through a clinic at all rather than handing food out ourselves.
Who you would be working with
Two students and an adult advisor.
Homegrown Hearts was founded by Kreeshma Vasikarla and Charishya Yarram, two high-school students in Union County, North Carolina. We operate under an adult advisor, and we would introduce you to them before anything begins.
We would rather tell you that plainly at the start than have it come up later.
Next step
A twenty-minute conversation.
Tell us whether this is useful to you and what you would change about it. If it is not a fit, saying so costs you nothing and we will not follow up repeatedly.