Cultivating food security: distributing neglected and underutilized species through a community-supported approach

Immokalee, Florida, USA, is a key hub in America’s winter tomato supply, yet its farmworkers, primarily migrants from Mexico, Guatemala, and Haiti, face deep poverty and food insecurity.
Cultivate Abundance, a nonprofit, addresses food insecurity in Immokalee through the organization’s signature community-supported food security (CSFS) approach by collaborating with local partners to grow, collect, and share nutritious food year-round.
Cultivate Abundance focuses on sharing culturally appropriate food (CAF), which consists of a range of neglected and underutilized species (NUS). The purpose of this research is to examine how Cultivate Abundance’s CSFS approach integrates NUS to address food insecurity in Immokalee, Florida.
Analysis of Cultivate Abundance’s CSFS approach in 2024 showed that over 18,597 kg of produce were distributed that year, with 38% of the crops classified as NUS. Partnerships spanned 40 individual partners, including nonprofits (3), churches (5), educational institutions (3), family farms (2), and home gardens (28). This research presents a potential framework for individuals interested in utilizing NUS to address food security through distribution.
This study also examines the complexity of sourcing and distributing culturally appropriate NUS for a culturally diverse population, exploring ways to increase the availability of NUS for distribution.

IV International Symposium on Underutilized Plant Species

B. Flanagan, G.P. Carter

culturally appropriate food, food pantries, migrants, nonprofits, nutrition

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2026.1460.33