Frequently Asked Questions

CSA stands for community supported agriculture. A CSA works like a subscription program for vegetables and fruits. You pay local farmers in advance for vegetables and fruits to be produced in the upcoming growing season. For this program, VUMC will pay the farm. By purchasing a "share" in the farm, you share in both the risk and the bounty of the harvest while helping small farmers cover the cost of production (such as seeds, equipment maintenance, and labor). Throughout the growing season, CSA members receive a portion of each harvest that includes a variety of vegetables. These baskets of fruits and vegetables are often brought by the farmers to a central location for convenient pickup by members.

CSA boxes include a variety of in-season fruits and vegetables. For example, the spring CSA box may have a variety of salad greens, carrots, beets, radishes, broccoli and turnips. As the season moves to summer, CSA boxes may include peppers, tomatoes, eggplant and squash. Fall will bring kale, winter squash, sweet potatoes, cucumbers and mustard greens.

Participating in a CSA program gives you an opportunity to meet the hardworking, talented and intelligent people that grow healthy and delicious food. Also, CSA programs provide farmers with a stable source of income when they are preparing for the growing season. As a CSA participant, you receive food that is fresher than what can be purchased at the grocery store because it has been harvested just days before you receive it.

Typically, a half CSA share is a biweekly delivery of a ½ bushel basket of produce (about 10-12 items).  Growing Together Farm offers their half share as a weekly delivery of 5 items.

Every farm and CSA program will handle this situation differently, but it is often best practice to let your CSA program know in advance you are unable to pick up your share. Most CSA programs do not offer refunds for CSA shares not picked up by participants.

Every farm and CSA program will handle this situation differently. For some farms, changing your delivery day will be an easy switch, but for others it may be more difficult. Just ask your farmer!

If you are receiving your CSA share as part of your benefit package and stop working at VUMC, your share will be transferred to another VUMC employee who wants to receive a CSA share and you will no longer receive the CSA.

VUMC is excited to offer this program to our employees. Since there are a limited amount of shares available, we will monitor your participation throughout the project. Prior to the tax deductions in June and July, we will take steps to transfer CSA to another employee if a participants fails to pick up your share more than 4 consecutive times.

If you are eligible for the 100% discount, VUMC will pay the farm for you. The cost of the CSA share can range between $416 - $450. VUMC’s contribution is considered taxable income, so the employee will be responsible for paying taxes on the cost of the CSA share. See approximated taxes below:
If you are eligible for the 20% discount, VUMC will pay the farmer 20% of the cost of your CSA share, which means you are responsible for paying the remaining 80%. You will need to make this payment before May 1st. The cost of all of the CSA shares are different per farm, see table below:

Both Delvin Farms and Caney Fork Farms have offered to drop off pre-packaged CSA boxes to VUMC. Both farms will drop off in the VUMC “N” parking lot located at the corner of Natchez Trace and Children’s Way. Delvin Farms will be there Thursday 3:30 – 5:30 and Caney Fork Farms will be there Tuesdays 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM. Sweeter Days Farm will be offering a CSA pick up at Vanderbilt Health @ Pleasant View Thursdays 3:30 – 5:30 PM

We have a limited number of shares available, and enrollment in the program will close once we reach those allotments. A discount of 20% per share is also available to the first 150 employees who sign up but who don’t meet the pay level requirement for the program.

If you have additional questions about the program or the farms, you can contact Marie Holzer at 615.875.7996 or marie.holzer@vumc.org. Once the CSA share distribution begins, you will need to contact the farms directly for farm specific questions, such as pickup location, delivery date or vegetables provided each week or any special event the farm may host.

As a part of the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society, the Rooted Community Health initiative seeks to engage the VUMC community in service to ecology, health promotion and human flourishing, and an ethically responsible understanding of our interdependency as a community within the vision of population health.

The deadline to sign up is 5 p.m., Friday, April 24 for the 100% subsidy and 5 p.m., Friday, May 1 for the 20% discount. 

For help selecting a farm, review our “How to select a farm” infographic, or visit our website at https://www.vumc.org/cbmes/growing-good-health, where you can find information on each farm and a link to the farm’s website. Contact Marie Holzer at 615.875.7996 or marie.holzer@vumc.org with questions. 

Here are some quick steps to enroll:

1. Visit the CSA program website at https://www.vumc.org/cbmes/growing-good-health
2. Click on the Growing Good Health survey
3. We will verify your eligibility
4. We will send you a follow up survey where you select your farm and which of their pickup locations you would like to regularly pick up your veggies
5. Your farmer will reach out to you via email to confirm your enrollment in their system. If you don’t hear from your farmer, please reach out to Marie Holzer at marie.holzer@vumc.org