By George P. Hassett

One low income Somerville family will win the city’s freshest lottery prize ever May 5 when the Growing Center hosts the Veggie Lotto. The lottery’s winner will receive 10 pounds of free, locally grown, organic produce every Wednesday for six months.

“Organic food shouldn’t be something only rich people can eat. We all need to eat healthy, and low-income folks in the city may only have access to supermarkets with chips and soda,” said Ryan Voiland, whose Red Fire Farm will be delivering the vegetables to Union Square each week.

“With the lotto, a family who couldn’t otherwise afford organic food will have a chance to eat healthy.

The initiative is sponsored by the Somerville Community Corp. (SCC) and is part of a one-year project to identify ways to close the gap between local healthy food distributors and the low income and immigrant residents of East Somerville, said Lisa Gimbel, a community organizer with SCC.

Gimbel said SCC recently conducted a survey of East Somerville and found 260 gardens in the dense, urban neighborhood. She said many area residents do not realize they can grow their favorite vegetables in Somerville and events like the Veggie Lotto can help promote local growing.

“The Growing Center is a visual testament to the fact that people in Somerville can produce their own vegetables and food,” she said. “SCC wants to find ways we can make our community healthier by promoting local agriculture. And when we do have resources like local farms, how do we use them?”

The lotto will be held at the Growing Center on Vinal Avenue as part of the 13th annual Spring Garden Day. In addition to the Veggie Lotto, the day will feature the Red Herring Mixed Morris Dance Team performing dances that welcome the summer to Somerville, craft activities using recycled materials and free vegetable seed giveaways.
“We want people to go home excited to start their own urban garden,” said Lisa Brukilacchio, organizer of Spring Garden Day.

Brukilacchio said gardening can enlighten Somerville residents on the food cycle.
“Even in an urban environment, soil can feed us,” she said. “Part of gardening is just observing the miracle of life. We put these little seeds in the ground, then a big green plant comes up. We eat it and it becomes part of us.”

The lotto’s winner will receive a wide variety of fresh produce. The vegetables Red Fire Farms offers range from 75 different varieties of tomatoes to obscure yet nutritious crops such as fennel. Voiland said while supermarkets rely on centralized, corporate farms as far away as California, Red Fire Farms crops are picked less than 24 hours before their delivery to Union Square.

‚ÄúIt‚Äôs like the difference between a plastic banana and a real banana,‚Äù said Gimbel, who owns a share in Red Fire Farms herself and receives 10 pounds of fresh produce a week. The Veggie Lotto‚Äôs winner will receive the same share for free, she said.