Manifest Love Food Distribution Partnership

Thanks to the Manifest Love Project, run by Round the Bend Farm in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, the YWCA Southeastern MA has been able to deliver food each week to families in the community in need of fresh produce. Learn more about the project below, and at Round The Bend Farm's Website.

In March of 2020, in direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Round the Bend Farm launched Manifest Love — a collaborative endeavor with YWCA Southeastern MA, Youth Opportunities Unlimited (Y.O.U.), and NorthStar Learning Centers which put healthy, local foods on the tables of families in New Bedford. The Executive Directors of these respective organizations – Desa Van Laarhoven, Gail Fortes, Bernadette Souza, and Maria Rosario – decided that Round the Bend Farm would provide free weekly food shares from early March 2020 to mid December to approximately 125 local families directly connected to the New Bedford organizations. Together we grew, gleaned, sourced, and distributed nutritious, organic, local food. We also created new and relevant educational resources, including videos, blogs and letters, which were sent out with the shares each week. The YWCA meticulously translated each letter and video into Spanish and Portuguese for accessibility; NorthStar Learning Centers picked up the food shares every week at Round the Bend and delivered them with love; and Y.O.U. provided cooking classes for children whose families receive shares through their program. 

Due to the success of Manifest Love in 2020, the project continued: for 30 weeks from May through December we delivered shares to 100+ families. In 2022, Manifest Love expanded on its educational offerings and created the 104-page Manifest Love Cookbook, which provides in-depth storage, preservation, and nutrition information, as well as countless recipes and preparation ideas for most vegetables, fruits, and herbs that participants receive throughout the course of a season. A printed copy of the cookbook is given to each participant at the start of the season and a free, digital version lives on the RTB website for anyone to access. The cookbook was translated into Spanish and Portuguese by the YWCA in 2025. In 2024, the Manifest Love Food Truck began offering mobile education and healthy food. 

As of December 2024, nearly 170,000 lbs of food has been distributed to partners and participants, valued at more than three quarters of a million dollars.

Click here to learn more about the Manifest Love project on Round the Bend Farm’s website.