North Agriplex Executive Director Rachel Dawsey packs up fresh vegetables in April at the Cullman Grown Drive Up Market held at the agriplex.

Even with the curve ball the COVID-19 pandemic threw for this year’s event, organizers say the North Alabama Agriplex’s annual Farm to Table dinner was a success in the wake of its first-ever socially distanced fundraiser.

The dinner, which this year moved both the locally-grown meal and its accompanying silent auction online, ended up netting $2,700 in sales for prepared meal boxes, as well as an additional $3,700 in silent auction bids. Agriplex director Rachel Dawsey said those are solid numbers, especially considering the event — which in previous years has drawn a crowd to its host venue at Wallace State Community College — was treading in uncharted territory.

“It was really good, and really successful, in light of the circumstances this year,” she said Tuesday. “People showed such interest in our locally-prepared meal boxes that we’re actually thinking about perhaps introducing the same idea, on a smaller scale, as maybe a quarterly thing. If the community is interested in seeing something like that, we want to hear from you!”

Dawsey added that local chef Braxton Taylor, who curated the at-home menu to guide this year’s meal box buyers through the steps of preparing their own dinner, has volunteered to assist the Agriplex with future on-site cooking demonstrations — all to help showcase local farmers and their produce.

“We’re trying to work out for him to head up a visit to a local farm, maybe monthly or quarterly, with our mobile kitchen,” she explained. “We could set up our mobile kitchen at a farm, and then Braxton could do a little meal right there on the spot, using what they have in season.”

Back in May, the U.S. Department of Agriculture tapped the Agriplex as the local distribution point for its Farmers to Families Food Box Program, a separate program that offers free food boxes to the community as part of Congress’ CARES coronavirus relief Act. Though USDA has recently authorized a new round of funding for the program, the Agriplex has not re-applied to participate through the end of this year. But Dawsey said the program is slated to last through the end of 2022, and that the Agriplex will likely seek to re-apply early next year.

“It’s a fabulous program, but the Agriplex is not signed up to participate in the current extension,” she said. “There were some guidelines attached to what must be included in the food boxes this time that we didn’t meet locally, even though they’ve since changed those requirements. But now that we’re in our fall calendar of events, we’ll probably look at applying to get involved again sometime in the spring.”