Valentine’s Day in the fresh produce space often conjures up images of strawberries or cherries or any other red produce. But what about cabbage?
Farmlink, a national nonprofit that connects farms with surplus produce to food banks and communities in need, has launched a creative fundraiser where donors can sponsor cabbage in honor of their loved ones.
Eliza Blank, CEO of The Farmlink Project, says the idea developed from a team member pointing out that “mon chou,” which means “my darling” in French, literally translates to “my cabbage.”
Blank says this fundraiser is not only timely for Valentine’s Day, but also that both Pinterest and Vogue magazine have named 2026 the year of the cabbage due to its health benefits.
“I think we’ve moved about 5 million pounds of cabbage since our inception, just to put things in perspective,” she says. “So, we’re very well adept at moving cabbage.”
Blank says the team thought it was a fun, lighthearted way to create a campaign around what Farmlink does as well as around the year of the cabbage.
“What a beautiful way to take such a humble vegetable and make it really feel meaningful,” she says.
Those who donate any amount online through Valentine’s Day will get a digital valentine to send to the donor’s “mon chou.” Donations of $10 will move up to 780 servings of cabbage, and donations of $5,000 will move an entire truckload of cabbage or nearly 150,000 servings of cabbage, Blank says.
More than $2,000 has been raised so far as a part of this campaign.
“We do serious work here every day, and we don’t take that lightly. We think that there should be a level of optimism around what we do, too,” Blank says. “It’s just a fun way to highlight the work that we do and to connect it to people and sort of give them another reason just to participate in what we’re doing.”
Blank says that as Farmlink moves full truckloads of fresh produce from a grower or a wholesaler, freight is the largest expense for the organization. The donation to someone’s “mon chou” helps with that cost.
“We are going to coordinate the truck to go pick up that food, we are going to coordinate the delivery with the receiving agency, and we, Farmlink, pay for the transportation,” she says. “So, our budget is primarily going to freight.”
And this organization is relatively new. It was founded in 2020 by a group of college students and has grown to move more than 150 million pounds of food this year, or about 100 trucks a week.
“This is real, meaningful nutrition that we are delivering into the charitable food system,” Blank says. “When we are moving these trucks, we are sourcing the food, wherever surplus arises, and then we’re moving it within reason to a charitable receiving agency who’s nearby. This is our way of tying it all together.”
