When a truckload of just-gleaned squash from a local farm arrives at the loading dock, Amy Klein marvels at how things have changed.

"Unloading or loading donations and boxes used to take over an hour. Now we can do it in 10 minutes," says the executive director of Capital Roots, formerly known as Capital District Community Gardens. That boost in efficiency is thanks to a rebranding and new $2.8 million facility that opened in 2014.

What was once a nonprofit that opened in 1975 and embraced the urban civic ideals of the time, primarily in the form of community gardens and urban greening, Capital Roots is now a leader in fresh food access to underserved communities. Changing the way farms connect with eaters while building strong community bonds is part of the implied mission of Capital Roots: "Good food is a right, not a privilege," says Klein.

Some 40 years after the first community garden was established on Eighth Street in Troy, Capital Roots oversees 51 community gardens with a combined 850 plots across Rensselaer, Albany, Saratoga and Schenectady counties. Any individual, regardless of socioeconomic status, can apply to grow his or her own produce in their designated plot, but there is a shifting focus toward expanding fresh food access to impoverished areas of the region.

"People are becoming more interested in good quality food, but the playing field is not level. That's what we are doing: leveling the field," says Klein. The Veggie Mobile (and its smaller counterpart, the Veggie Mobile Sprout) is a brightly colored portable produce aisle and plays upbeat music (sometimes funk and sometimes Rat Pack-era crooners, like Dean Martin) and attracts customers like an ice cream truck. It is Capital Roots' four-wheeled mascot, bringing fresh food to neighborhoods without access to a grocery store within a mile. And it's served as a model for other mobiles across the nation.

Half of the Veggie Mobile customers are senior citizens who no longer have the stamina to raise their own produce in a garden, say Klein. Many of those seniors have difficulty preparing Veggie Mobile goods, so the commercial-grade kitchen in the Urban Grow Center is working to offer pre-cut and -peeled vegetables and fruits for the community at discounted prices. (Capital Roots aims to sell produce at 50 percent of the cost at a traditional grocery store.)

Human power for these services comes from volunteers from disability service groups, like Wildwood Programs, Living Resources and local ARC chapters. Having volunteers prepare and sort produce keeps operation costs low while offering job and life skills in return. Klein estimates there are 100 regular volunteers through these groups, with about 300 to 400 volunteers from the public that come in on an as-needed basis.

Those skills are also developed in the Produce Project, a year-round initiative that brings underprivileged youth to Capital Roots' 3-acre urban farm on Eighth Street. Students are provided with a stipend, school credit and produce shares to supplement family meals.

"We're not looking to raise farmers. We want to change the way they view and approach food," says Klein.

That mentality extends off the farm and away from the Veggie Mobile program, too. Fresh produce kiosks have been installed in convenience stores in the four-county area to offer low-cost healthy food in places where the underserved community is already shopping. The produce is sold at the cost Capital Roots pays for it, and the store is allowed to keep the retail markup. Fresh produce is delivered twice weekly for most stores, sometimes more.

While anyone can purchase produce from Capital Roots programs, most users are low-income and receive SNAP benefits. A recently enacted change to SNAP eligibility expanded benefits to 750,000 households across the state, according to a statement by the governor's office, but an expansion of funding for individuals does not equate to an increase in available produce. A bill to allow farmers to claim a tax deduction on donated produce has been passed in both the Senate and Assembly but has not yet been signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Last year, a similar bill was vetoed by Cuomo.

Offering tax incentives for the small- and medium-sized farms that partner with Capital Roots would increase donations and close the gap between need and availability, says Klein. Capital Roots' Squash Hunger program is a food recovery program that takes produce that would otherwise rot in the field and utilizes it in various emergency feeding programs (like soup kitchens and food pantries). Capital Roots staff and volunteers often go into the field and harvest themselves with the farm's permission, helping to boost the likelihood the food will make it to those who need it.

Last year, 800,000 pounds of produce was donated to Capital Roots, and 20,000 of that was gleaned through the Squash Hunger program. Klein feels that number could rise exponentially with passage of the tax incentive bill.

The evidence on the impact of a balanced, healthy diet is clear, says Klein. The Veggie Rx program gives vouchers for Capital Roots produce to local primary care clinics to aid chronic health issues, and a recent research paper produced in partnership with the SUNY School of Public Health showed a correlation between people using the Veggie Rx program to get produce and lower body mass index (BMI) levels.

Benefits extend past the physical, says Klein. "(Food) bridges gaps and helps with everyone's understanding of what we're dealing with in society." Continued expansion of programming helps make healthy food and fresh produce a priority for all members of society.

"The really beautiful thing about communities is when communities mix," she says.

Deanna Fox is a freelance food and agriculture writer. More at www.foxonfood.com or @DeannaNFox.