KANSAS CITY, Mo. – This is the most profitable time at farmers’ markets for 76-year-old Margaret Graham because this is when all of her produce is ripe and ready to sell. She has acres of fruit and vegetables, but what she no longer has is a way to haul it all.
On July 31st, Margaret said her 1998 van was packed and ready to go to a market, but she was met with an unpleasant surprise.
“I went out to get in my van to leave and it was gone,” she said.
Margaret said someone stole her van with all of her supplies inside.
“I was really upset. I was pretty sad,” she explained.
Sad because the $200 she would have made that day is money she can’t live without.
“Well it means that I can pay my bills, and pay my taxes and stuff,” Margaret said.
Margaret isn’t just on her own financially, she also takes care of many of her family members, something years of gardening has allowed her to do.
Now Margaret asks friends for rides and thinks about what could happen next.
“I don’t sleep as well and I just kinda worry,” she said.
Worries how she’ll pay her bills if the produce she lovingly grows can’t provide much needed green for her family.
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