Kismet and the Chevy

Mitchell Neto carefully parks his beautifully restored yellow panel truck, perhaps his first love as some men are wont to feel toward their first car. He is at the edge of the Danville Farmers’ Market, and it is his Saturday to collect produce donated by the farmers to Loaves and Fishes.

This warm sunny day he grabs a grocery cart, fills it with empty boxes, and begins his rounds of the stalls that bear colorful arrays of freshly harvested produce: tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, plums, green beans, grapes. By now he knows all the vendors, and he stops to say hello and asks if they have anything to give this day. Affable bantering ensues. Some he passes by, because he knows they won’t donate, while others always give generously. He hands the empty boxes to the vendors who will fill them, ready for pickup when he returns.

When the market closes, the back of his truck bears the weight of many boxes filled with the donated produce and the delicious perfume of ripe strawberries permeates the air. He then transports the collection to the Loaves and Fishes kitchen in Pittsburg.

He will return to the market next month and repeat the process. In the meantime he will keep the yellow panel truck lovingly dusted and polished. When he was 16 he bought it from a friend, and the truck that now delivers food to Loaves and Fishes, was originally owned by Mayfair Foods, a chain grocery store no longer in business. One can’t help but feel that this was meant to be for Mitch and his truck. Kismet.















J and M Ibarra Organic Farms generously donates to Loaves
and Fishes every Saturday. (L to R) Ronnie Cruz, Greg Roth,
Ferdinand Libed, and Mitch Neto look over the produce.