Every week, Ross Edwards quietly sorts boxes of wholesale produce in the Willing Hands warehouse alongside our Warehouse Coordinator, Scott.
The good-looking food goes straight on the delivery truck, the too-far-gone items go straight in the compost, and everything in between will be carefully sorted by volunteers the following day. The work can be slimy and tedious, but it’s critical to ensuring that more food makes it onto our community’s plates.
Working with food is not new to Ross. As a kid, he worked at his uncle’s produce store on Long Island. Upon moving to New Mexico as a young adult, he worked at a small orchard where he could bring home as much fruit as he could eat. Years later, he still remembers the warm, sweet taste of the Bing cherries.
Soft spoken and deliberate with his words, Ross’ eyes light up when he talks about New Mexican cuisine. He can describe in-depth the nuances of red and green chili sauce, and is familiar with the many traditional uses of blue corn. At one point, he ran a business producing blue corn products like pancake mix and tortilla chips. His company was one of the first to sell blue corn products outside the Southwest and overseas.
When Ross retired and moved to the Upper Valley, he missed the chili sauce but quickly got involved with Meals on Wheels and Willing Hands. He says getting food to people who need it is one of the most foundational ways to support a healthy community. “Food is one of the most immediate, direct needs that we have as humans,” he says. “You need to eat in order to live your life.”
In that spirit, Ross shows up to Willing Hands week after week to help make certain that our community has enough healthy food to eat. “It’s a good group of people to work with,” he says about Willing Hands. He pauses and chuckles. “Plus, Scott plays good music.”