KNOX — A local food bank is looking for volunteers to help at a farm that provides food for the hungry and the community.

Since 2001, The Patroon Land Farm on Ketchum Road in Knox has been providing fresh produce for the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York. 

In 2007, over 400 volunteers helped provide the food bank with over 96,000 pounds of produce, which was distributed to hungry people in the Capital Region.  This year, the food bank has of goal of 100,000 pounds.  

Volunteers are needed Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. from July through October.  Without volunteers, the food bank says, the farm will not be able to harvest all of the produce the farm generates.  

This year, the food bank and the farm launched a community-supported agriculture project and are accepting 50 memberships.  Each week, members of the CSA pick up an allotment of produce — enough to feed a family of three to four, the food bank says — either at the farm in Knox or at the food bank in Latham.  Members can also pick their own string beans, peas, cherry tomatoes, and herbs at the farm. 

This year, the food bank says, $60,000 is being invested to begin changing 60 of its 162 acres to organic farming.

To volunteer, call Norah Pattison at 786-3691 ext. 234 or email [email protected].  To contact the farm’s manager, Mark Weinhammer, call 339-5726.  And, for more information about the CSA, call Linda Comstock at 786-3691 ext. 245 or email [email protected].