The Brandeis Campus Sustainability Initiative will host a 20-week summer and 8-week fall Community Supported Agriculture farm share program in collaboration with Warner Farm from June to October for Brandeis students, faculty and staff, according to Sustainability Coordinator Janna Cohen-Rosenthal '03. Participants for the program sign up at the beginning of the season and pay a set amount depending upon the size of the share they select. This money provides the farmer with start-up capital for the costs the farm will incur throughout the season. In return, participants receive weekly shares of produce, each of which feeds one to six people, depending upon the amount purchased. For the summer program, large shares are $600, medium shares are $475 and small shares are $300, according to the Warner Farm website. For the fall program, extra-large shares are $280 and large shares are $240.

The produce varies throughout the year as the seasons progress from summer to fall. As stated on the Warner Farm website, participants in the summer program can receive fruit, flowers or eggs for an additional fee of $100 for flowers, $90 or $180 for eggs and from $100 to $300 for fruit, depending on the size purchased. These additional options are not available for the fall program.

This summer's CSA program will be the first CSA program in Brandeis' history that the University will offer and will be followed by an overlapping 8-week fall program, running from September to October. These new programs follow in the wake of Brandeis' first successful CSA program this past fall, in which approximately 90 students, faculty and staff participated, said Cohen-Rosenthal in an interview with the Justice.

Cohen-Rosenthal, who belonged to a CSA for about a decade, had tried for approximately 2 years to bring a CSA program to Brandeis. Most programs only run during the summer season. Cohen-Rosenthal said that the Campus Sustainability Initiative believed there would not be sufficient participation from the community during this time for Brandeis' first CSA program. This is because most students and faculty are not on campus and there would not have been enough time to promote it. As a result of the high participation in this fall's program, Cohen-Rosenthal said that they believe there is enough interest to run a successful summer program.

Due to transportation and other costs, farms often impose a minimum number of participants before entering into a CSA agreement.

Cohen-Rosenthal said in April 2009, she met an agriculture student from the University of Massachusetts who was a CSA manager and offered to help coordinate a fall program at Brandeis.

She also said that she was not sure that there would be enough participants to reach the program's minimum of 50 shares since the Sustainability Initiative was not able to promote this past fall's program before the end of the year. Student groups-such as NaturaLiving, Students for Environmental Action and the Brandeis Real Food Coalition-assisted by sending e-mails to their listservs, and "with very little advertising," Cohen-Rosenthal said, "we got 90 shares" for the fall program.

According to the farm's website, the practices at Warner Farm in Sunderland, Mass. for growing crops provided for CSAs and sold at farmers' markets are entirely organic, and the farm is in the process of becoming government-certified organic, said Cohen-Rosenthal.

The farm will be physically distributing boxes of produce to Brandeis CSA participants for the coming summer and fall programs but, due to previous obligations, was not able to do so this past fall. Therefore, student groups provided volunteers to staff weekly distribution, according to Cohen-Rosenthal.

The student groups were "all very supportive and wanted to see [the CSA] grow," added Cohen-Rosenthal.

Emilie Schuler '11, who was the president of the NaturaLiving club during the fall CSA season, said in an interview with the Justice that the group was "really excited" at the prospect of a "revolutionary" fall-only CSA program. A main goal of the CSA program, Schuler continued, is to bring more local food to campus, which is also a primary aim of the NaturaLiving club.

The program is open to all faculty and staff but is restricted to students living in an apartment or a residence hall with a kitchen, because most of the large quantity of produce must be cooked or prepared before consumption, said Cohen-Rosenthal.

Cohen-Rosenthal and Schuler both said that the goal of the Campus Sustainability Initiative and of NaturaLiving is to have more students participate in the summer and fall CSA programs.

Participants can sign up with representatives from Warner Farm, who will be in the Usdan Student Center this Thursday from noon to 3 p.m.