Contributed photo Sandhills Farm to Table members help package subscribers' boxes before they head out to gathering sites at which the subscribers pick them up. You can sign up for the next season now.

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The Sandhills Farm to Table Cooperative is now accepting memberships and Produce Box subscriptions for the 2013 season through its online website www.SandhillsFarm2Table.com.

“Neighbors Feeding Neighbors” and “We’re All in this Together” are the slogans of the SF2T Co-op, a grassroots, community-owned enterprise that distributes weekly or biweekly CSA-type produce boxes and value-added items from local farmers. More than 1,600 households in the Moore, Lee, Richmond and Cumberland county area participate, according to co-op staff. Members also get a weekly newsletter with recipes, and online store access to bulk produce for canning, jamming and freezing, potlucks, and more.

For $25, anyone can become a 2013 member and take advantage of offerings of local treats.

Members can choose to subscribe to the regular Produce Box, which has an alternative box choice weekly, or the Bread Box, in which a loaf of fresh-baked bread replaces part of the produce. The Spring/Summer season begins April 17-18th and runs until mid-August; in September, the Fall season begins an eight week run. Members may pick up at one of many Gathering Sites throughout the Sandhills. Options include weekly (18 weeks) or biweekly (9 weeks) deliveries, Family Boxes or a subscription for a Bread Box. Cost ranges from the $22 per week for a standard box to the $40 family box.

Signup is easy and online. Just visit www.SandhillsFarm2Table.com. Questions about membership and the subscription program are answered in an extensive FAQ on the website.

The fourth season also brings two key changes to the core team. A new General Manager, Steve Peters, has taken on the role as of Jan. 1. Peters joins the team after leaving his fifteen-year corporate career in New York City to return to Moore County with his wife, Susan, proprietor of the Southern Whey cheese shop in historic downtown Southern Pines. Peters is a graduate of The O’Neal School and his family has claimed Moore County as their home since the early 1980s.

“Sandhills Farm to Table is a great community success story built on connecting people through locally produced food,” said Peters. “I’m excited to become part of the team and lend some of my business experience and enthusiasm for community-based ventures to continue developing the SF2T narrative.”

With Peters joining the team, co-founder and former General Manager, Fenton Wilkinson, now will be pursuing projects both for SF2T and local economic development groups such as Moore County Partners In Progress.

“Fenton has been instrumental in the creation and growth of SF2T,” said Jan Leitschuh, SF2T co-founder and board chairperson. “And we look forward to continuing to work with him on key initiatives that will benefit both the co-op and the community at-large.”

Anyone interested in supporting local agriculture through an inexpensive membership or local subscription is invited to sign up online at the website www.Sandhillsfarm2Table.com. For questions not answered on the website, email info@SandhillsFarm2Table.com.