As I reported during the Social Forum, many of these principles and intentions can be seen in practice in Detroit. My reporting there only scratched the surface of the work that’s been done — and one of the things I learned was how much discussion and collective self-reflection had come before (and in the course of) meaningful action.

In the particular case of Detroit, the local food movement engaged in a series of workshops (facilitated by the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond) focused on confronting and dismantling racism in both the industrial food system and the movement itself. Participants analyzed race and power dynamics, and emerged with a shared set of ideas and vocabulary with which they can collaboratively work to restructure those dynamics.

Images c/o Jessica Beaumont of the NYC Food Justice Delegation

During the People’s Movement Assembly on Food Justice at the Social Forum, participants formed a breakout group to focus specifically on this process of dismantling racism in the food system. As a white person of privilege working towards food justice in low-income, largely black communities in DC, I was grateful for the opportunity to join this group and learn more about my own role. Several leaders of Detroit’s movement helped facilitate the conversation, and we worked hard to consider what broad lessons could be drawn from their experience. The need (and desire) for greater dialogue was shared by all at the table, but many local food movements might not yet be at a point where it’s possible to gather the right set of people together in a room for a deep analysis of race, power, and white supremacy.

Yet we have to start the process somewhere (and, like it or not, that process is really best started in a place–not on a blog).

I was using that mobile device to take notes -- swear!

Fortunately, one promising answer can be found within the very stuff of this movement: food itself. More specifically, the way that social capital is generated by the growing, preparing, and eating of food. Several participants of the subgroup shared insights into how simple, deliberate community meals are used in their community to create spaces for dialogue and relationship-building. The Detroit folks recalled that their community’s dismantling racism workshops were, in fact, an idea that germinated in the course of a series of dinners among the movement’s leaders.

And so our Dismantling Racism subgroup of the Food Justice People’s Movement Assembly at the 2010 US Social Forum concluded with the presentation of what some may consider a “radical notion”: that we should gather people together in our communities to collaboratively prepare food, eat the food, and talk about the food.

Diners at the DC Food For All's launch: the Great Harvest

Personally, I was energized and encouraged by this experience; after all, the DC Food For All launched 9 months ago in this very way. Relationships forged in the course of these early meals continue to bear fruit today. So I’m sharing the text of the proposal forged in Detroit here in hopes that we can experiment with these accessible, social, and political community-building meals here in DC.

A proposal for dismantling racism: Let’s eat together

We affirmed the radical notion of sitting down and eating together as a starting point for building relationships, gaining historical perspective, sharing culture, learning from each other, offering practical tips for healthy cooking/eating, supplying food for those is need, discussing future action, recognizing who is missing from the table, and action to bring them into the circle next time. Many of the key ingredients to dismantling racism.

Building on the example of the People’s Kitchen Collective in Oakland we see endless potential in this model. Here are some ideas:

• Work to raise $$ so the meal can be free to all or on a sliding scale
• This example was a meal for 200 people
• Invite 20 people to come help prepare the meal
• Invite 4 people to teach one dish each
• Set up 4 stations and have each cook discuss the role this dish plays in their culture, where the ingredients come from (work to include the growers whenever possible), and how food can be used for organizing in their community
• Have the 20 cooks report back what they learned to the larger group
• Collectively say grace/thanks for the food!
• Offer discussion questions for each table
• Send each guest home with the recipes and whatever ingredients you can provide (especially cultural spices or things harder to find)
• Discuss who is missing from the table and what collectively can be done to include them next time
• Set a date for next meal!

The Social Forum — which convened in Detroit just last month — “is a movement building process… [that] provides spaces to learn 
from each other’s experiences and struggles, share our analysis of the problems 
our communities face, build relationships, and align with our international 
brothers and sisters to strategize how to reclaim our world.” It’ll be another three years before the US Social Forum convenes again, but in the meantime the process of the Social Forum is ongoing — as people from different movements, backgrounds and regions continue to deliberate and act upon solutions to the 
economic and ecological crisis.

An essential component of this process are People’s Movement Assemblies (PMA). PMAs are gatherings of people (25, 250 or more) that come together to collectively identify community issues, discuss solutions, and commit to actions.

Before the USSF2010 in Detroit, the Greater DC Social Forum (organized largely by attendees of USSF2007  in Atlanta) convened a DC People’s Movement Assembly. The Greater DC Social Forum will now convene another DC-area People’s Movement Assembly on August 7th, at 11AM at Plymouth Congregational UCC (5301 N Capitol Street NE). Attendees of USSF2010 will share the experience and ideas that they brought back from Detroit — however, this event is open to anyone who wants to work towards a better greater DC. (You can RSVP on Facebook here.)

At the pre-Detroit People’s Movement Assembly here in DC, some attendees had conversations about food justice issues—but there was not yet a PMA group self-organized around the subject. Well I am pleased to report that the signs of food justice movements across the country are strong! The challenges we face are great, but so are our opportunities. (I previously blogged about food sovereignty in Detroit here.)  The USSF2010 Food Justice PMA assembled a diverse and exciting set of people, ideas, and proposals — consolidating it all into one statement to be shared with the broader Social Forum.

So, with hope that food justice/sovereignty will become an active thread of the Greater DC Social Forum process, I’m happy to share the Food Sovereignty People’s Movement Assembly resolution below. Let’s consider this document as we continue our conversation on August 7th and beyond.

Statement from the People’s Movement Assembly on Food Sovereignty, US Social Forum 2010

Over a half-century ago, Mahatma Gandhi led a multitude of Indians to the sea to make salt—in defiance of the British Empire’s monopoly on this resource critical to people’s diet. The action catalyzed the fragmented movement for Indian independence and was the beginning of the end for Britain’s rule over India. The act of “making salt” has since been repeated many times in many forms by people’s movements seeking liberation, justice and sovereignty: Cesar Chavez, Nelson Mandela, and the Zapatistas are just a few of the most prominent examples. Our food movement— one that spans the globe—seeks food sovereignty from the monopolies that dominate our food systems with the complicity of our governments. We are powerful, creative, committed and diverse. It is our time to make salt.

A movement for food sovereignty – the people’s democratic control of the food system, the right of all people to healthy, culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems - is building from every corner of the globe.

We find that our work to build a better food system in the Unites States is inextricably linked to the struggle for workers’ rights, immigrant’s rights, women’s rights, the fight to dismantle racism in our communities, and the struggle for sovereignty in indigenous communities. We find that in order to create a better food system, we must break up the corporate control of our seeds, land, water and natural resources.

Because at a time of record harvests and record profits we have over one billion hungry people on the planet; because poverty is the root cause of hunger; because the world’s oceans are being polluted and plundered, because industrial agriculture contributes one third of all greenhouse gas emissions, because increasing inequality, poverty, hunger, a global land grab, and environmental destruction are threatening the livelihoods of family farmers, farmworkers, fisherfolk, and marginalized communities worldwide; and because community based food systems and agroecological farming can cool the planet, build resilience to climate change, and eliminate poverty;

We therefore commit to re-building local food economies in our own communities, to dismantling structural racism, to democratizing land access, to building opportunities for the leadership of our youth, and to working towards food sovereignty in partnership with social movements around the world;

We call on others in the US to demand an end to the global land grab, to end both corporate and military land occupations, to demand fairer trade, aid and investment policies, land reform, and support for sustainable peasant and community agriculture and sustainable community fisheries;

We endorse actions that include: the liberation of land and water resources for the production of food and sustainable livelihoods; the creation of new structures for cooperative ownership of land and food production, processing and distribution; the integration of labor rights, immigrant’s rights and food justice; the valuing of women as primary food providers, and the denouncement of false solutions and false partnerships addressing climate change, hunger and economic development;

We demand a world in which everyone has control over their food and no one has to put food in their mouth that hurts people or the environment.
Organizations and individuals among us have therefore committed to the following actions:

• Launching a campaign for food sovereignty as a right of the people
• Growing and harvesting as much food as we possibly can everywhere
• Liberating land through reclaiming urban and rural spaces for the production of food for communities; demanding the use of public lands for food production
• Participating in a global campaign against land grabs, in which corporations and governments grab up the lands of communities
• Carrying forward the people’s agenda coming out of the Cochabamba climate summit — including popular education around food and climate justice and promoting sustainable agriculture as a solution to climate change
• Standing with the people of Haiti, Palestine, Honduras, and other countries whose food sovereignty is threatened by political, military, and/or corporate occupation
• Hosting collective meals in our communities as a way of connecting people across generations and cultural backgrounds and as a tool for dismantling racism in the food system
• Forging new models of collective control of land and waterways; assuring legal protection of the commons
• Building the leadership of the next generation; providing opportunities for urban and rural youth to have a future in food and farming
• Rejecting GMOs and other forms of the corporate takeover of our food systems
• Creatively and strategically working to dismantle the corporations who have hijacked the world’s food systems
• Affirming the sovereignty of indigenous peoples in North America and throughout the globe
• Committing our food movements in the US to be active participants in the global movement for food sovereignty and to work to stop our government and corporations from practices that undermine food sovereignty globally.
• Challenging US food and agricultural aid and development policy (e.g., Monsanto and USAID’s recent “donation” of seeds to Haiti)
• Working towards a people’s food and farm bill based on principles of food sovereignty
• Hosting community seed exchanges
• Engaging communities in popular education on GMOs and the role of corporations in our food system
• Engaging communities in popular education on community nutrition and public health
• Creating more community farmers markets that are accessible and affordable to all; affirming everyone’s right to food that is good, safe, healthy, and fair
• Helping everyone understand where their food comes from and who helped bring it to their table
• Highlighting the common struggles between farmers and farmworkers in the US and their counterparts throughout the world

See the official page for this document here. And join us on August 7th to discuss what comes next.

The Ward 8 Farmers Market (1310 Southern Avenue SE) is a community and local farmer-based grassroots market formed as a response to inadequate healthy food choices in Southeast D.C. and as a self-empowerment tool. The goal of the market is to help members of the community eat fresher, more natural and nutritious foods, and adopt healthier lifestyles for their long-term benefit as well as their children, families, and society. Organizers John Gloster and Virginia Major discuss how the market got started and its community impact. Click here to view a map of the market’s location.

The workshop will start with a short film about seed saving, include a bit of an introduction about its history, and then go into a practical, hands-on workshop. If all goes well, you should be bringing some seeds home to plant in the future. If you already have experience with seed saving, come along as well. We’d love for you to share your expertise.

Date: Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Time: 7-9 PM
Location: Emergence Community Arts Collective, 2nd floor, 733 Euclid Street NW, Washington DC

Please contact ecolocitydc@gmail.com for questions or visit our website at ecolocity.ning.com. We hope to see you there!

Save Virginia Avenue Park from Roadside Organics on Vimeo.

I recently returned from a four-month culinary tour of Southeast Asia.  Since stepping off the plane, folks ask about what impressed me most.  My answer is always the same:  farms, farmers, farming.  I can’t count the number of farmers markets I’ve visited in the US.  I loved the farm-to-table idea, but the act of farming itself – painstakingly coaxing treasure from dirt – seemed remote and abstract.  Until I trekked distant Asian roadsides, far from the reigns of the supermarket.

Kneeling in dusty, sun-baked fields, just a few miles from where I had enjoyed my last meal, I could feel that food wasn’t just a product of rich soil.  It grew too on the care and passion of those who grew it – who in turn seemed to find an important piece of themselves in providing for their neighbor’s table.  So different from home – where grazing is limited to supermarket aisles, and farms so remote they seem almost a literary fiction.

It needn’t be this way.  In fact, in some fortunate parts of our city, it isn’t. Just days after returning from Asia, I read that the Marines might occupy one of the city’s premier growing spots, the Virginia Avenue Community Garden.  From the controversy that erupted, you’d have thought the Marines had choppered in, already locked and loaded.  After four months walking and talking with farmers half-a-world away, I could understand why.

For years, the land the park now occupies withered with urban decay—an unused city lot at 9^th and L Streets SE.  But the Barracks Row neighborhood now buzzes with hip new restaurants, bars, and boutiques.  Just a few blocks away, the Virginia Avenue Park has undergone a stark transformation too, from derelict lot to fruitful garden.

Over the past six years, a diverse caste of District families banded together to rebuild the Park. When I visited this past weekend, the spirit of the gardeners was intoxicating: a resolute group that believes this space is central to their revitalizing neighborhood. The gardeners represent a broad cross section of the city – old punk rockers, young families, government workers, retired military personnel – each with their own stories.  But all their stories share a common theme:  how the park with its fertile soil grew and enriched the soul of their community.

Sure, you can spend fifty dollars at the Dupont Circle farmers’ market, and gather ingredients for a special meal.  But for fifty dollars a plot per year, the Virginia Avenue Community Garden not only makes fresh, organic food available to a far-broader cross-section of District families.  Its beauty, its shared sense of growing something important together, can anchor a community far better than any number of new bistros and bars.  We should keep the Garden.

Hello from Detroit, site of

The city of Detroit was built for 2 million people — but in the course of at least four decades of accelerated economic decay, its population has fallen well under half that. The city occupies 139 square miles; at least 40 square miles now lie abandoned. One fifth of Detroit residents don’t have access to transportation, period. The last major grocer in Detroit closed in 2007, leaving a vast desert spotted with “fringe markets” in corner stores (with few oases).

All of which points to a primary reason why the US Social Forum is hosted here: Detroit is “Ground Zero” for the various intersecting crises of post-industrial capitalism, including the crisis of our modern food infrastructure. The city’s struggle demands our attention — especially because of the many green shoots of renewal that can be found (for instance, an estimated 1,300 community gardens and farms).

One of the session’s speakers was Patrick Crouch of Earthworks, which works in conjunction with one of the city’s oldest soup kitchens. Earthworks engages in urban agriculture and community education, and is part of a network of activists working to reclaim community food sovereignty. For example, Patrick briefly described ongoing efforts to encourage Detroit’s fringe markets to source fresh local foods–similar to the Healthy Corner Stores project in DC.

Patrick’s role in this session, however, deliberately reflected his role in the community: as a white transplant to Detroit, Patrick works to support the leadership and sovereignty of Detroit’s indigenous black communities.

(Image here copped from the NYC Food Justice Coalition's blog, a great read on the Social Forum.)

Since 2006, such sovereignty has been formally represented by the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (the acronymically vowel-free DBCFSN). Monica White, board member and professor at Wayne State University, explained that not only is Detroit’s population 85% black, but “there’s a long history of urban agriculture here — agrarian roots stretching back more than a century.”

And yet, Monica explained, as Detroit’s economic and structural collapse accelerated in the past decade, the food movement was gaining momentum — bringing a swell of foundations, developers, corporations and activists into the city, looking for paths of renewal. (A big-business proposal for massive conversion of vacant land into large-scale agriculture, for instance, is both breathtakingly ambitious and also fairly described as “reminiscent of a plantation.”) The Detroit Black Community Food Security Network formed to ensure that the indigenous community’s voice was not only at the table, but setting the agenda.

“Many food security activists have options for how to live their lives, and they opt to work for alternatives,” Monica noted. She assured the (largely white, young) crowd that such good intentions are appreciated; but good intentions and even hard work is still fundamentally insufficient for the objective of building true food sovereignty in a community.

The DBCFSN now operates a 2 acre farm, a community food buying club, and a youth mentorship program. Lila Cabil spoke of plans for a community-based grocery store that would also function as a community center, offering health, nutrition and fitness workshops and gathering space.

The Network was also instrumental in the development of Detroit’s Food Policy Council. They are also helping to develop a process for Community Benefit Agreements, would ensure that developers enter into contractual agreement with the community around matters of jobs, economic benefits and environmental impact of new projects in Detroit.

Amid all these initiatives, it became clear that urban food sovereignty can become, in the words of an audience member, “a vehicle for community autonomy.” And the scale of the crisis makes it more feasible to imagine truly radical solutions. Another world is possible, as goes the US Social Forum’s mantra.

The stakes are large. “As goes the food movement here in Detroit,” said one presenter, “so go food movements in the rest of the country.”

Indeed, despite different scales of economic crisis, there are striking similarities between Detroit and DC — in the eastern food deserts, in the burgeoning community garden scene, in non-profit offices, and even on the DC Food For All, which is contributed to largely by young white people of privilege who have transplanted to DC. We haven’t talked much (maybe not at all) about those racial dynamics here on the blog itself. Offline, however, many of us talk all the time about what it might take for this project to grow into a forum that’s truly of the community, rather than about the community. It’s not going to be easy, or quick. Yet at the moment I’m hopeful, inspired by the open, honest and deliberative dialogue happening here in Detroit. Next time I get a chance to write, I’ll share some of the ideas I’ve heard here about how allies can rededicate ourselves to the process of building relationships, establishing roles, and working together to build a different world.

The Columbia Heights Community Marketplace, Ward 8 Farmers Market, and Mt. Rainier Farmers Market all kick off their seasons this Saturday, June 5. Two of these markets are setting up their tents for the first time. All three offer both local food and a community focus.

The brand new Columbia Heights Community Marketplace will light up the new plaza at 14^th Street and Park Road NW. Organizers made local foods a keystone of this weekly event, bringing in fresh produce, eggs, dairy products, meat, or baked goods that the vendors grew, raised, or prepared within 150 miles of Washington.

But that’s not all.

“[T]he Columbia Heights Community Marketplace will act as a place for local community members, organizations, and artists to come together and celebrate the diverse cultures and activities present in this neighborhood,” a press release declares, explaining that the scene is “more than a farmers market.”

The “more” includes live music, dance, yoga and tai chi classes, and cooking demonstrations. The Columbia Heights Community Marketplace’s Youth Market Program combines educational activities to show neighborhood youngsters where their food comes from with opportunities to intern with nearby farms, bakeries, and vendors.

As the crowning touch, the inaugural market will unite Mayor Adrian Fenty, D.C. Council Chair Vincent Gray, and Council members Jim Graham and Kwame Brown when they kick off the opening ceremonies. Come at 11 a.m. to see these sometimes contentious figures share a stage.

The Ward 8 market, located in the heart of Congress Heights, has a social justice mission to serve the community east of the Anacostia River. As it has for the past 11 years, this market will bring fruits and vegetables to a part of D.C. where many residents do their food shopping at corner stores, where fresh foods make up just one percent of the inventory. This year, shoppers can also find herbs and plants at the farmers market, all sourced from no further than Pennsylvania and Maryland.

The market will be held every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the parking lot of the old Congress Heights School at 500 Alabama Ave. SE, near the Anacostia and Congress Heights Metro stations on the green line. The market will expand this year to include a weekday afternoon market, starting on June 8. That arm of the market will operate from the parking lot of the United Medical Center at 1310 Southern Ave. SE near the Southern Avenue Metro station on the green line. The market will run each Tuesday from 3 to 7 p.m. For the days in between, the farmers market organizers plan to continue to provide excess produce to corner store owners, who then agree to sell it at a fair price.

Right on the line between D.C. and Maryland, the Mt. Rainier Farmers Market will open for the first time this Saturday on the 3200 block of Rhode Island Avenue (NE on the D.C. side). It will take place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. each week. Though long known for establishments like the non-profit grocery store Glut and and the Mt. Rainier Bike Co-op, this neighborhood has yet to host a farmers market. Residents can now look to their own backyard for local produce, baked goods, bread, grass-fed meat, ice cream, tea, and coffee.

Opening day will feature live music, free tote bags, and balloons for the kids. The market’s website features community health news and links, including a weekly health tip and a guide to eating healthfully on a budget.

If you can’t make it to all three markets on the first day, not to worry. Each runs every week through the fall. The Ward 8 Saturday market runs through November 20 and the Tuesday market continues through October 26. The Mt. Rainier market also lasts through November 20. The Columbia Heights Community Marketplace does not list an ending date, but with so much community involvement, it’s sure to endure for a while.

Photos taken by the author at the 2009 Ward 8 Farmers Market at the old Congress Heights School.

Welcome to Kwanzaa (Swahili for first harvest) Kitchen, an outreach program of St.George’s Episcopal Church. It began in 1992, as the Breakfast Program. Modeled after the Black Panthers’ free breakfast programs for children in California, Kwanzaa Kitchen was started and continues, under Janis Evans (the St George’s Outreach Chair, and program coordinator for Kwanzaa Kitchen), to serve breakfast, every other Saturday morning, to the needy and the homeless.

In addition to the cooked items, grapefruit juice (right now, it’s cheaper than apple or orange juices), cereal (today, Honey Nut Cherrios), milk, and occasionally, fresh fruit are also offered.

Before breakfast is served, a count is taken of how many “first-timers” (breakfast diners) are present and how many “carry-outs” each would like. Each diner is entitled to up to three “carry-outs,” or a Styrofoam to-go container filled with three-pancakes, two strips of bacon, and a heaping spoon-full of eggs; syrup, butter, and utensils in the bag.

At 09:00am, Janis walks into the dinning room to welcome the guests and to read a scripture. Today, it was about love (1 Corinthians 13). “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres…”

Patrons are then served a plate of two pancakes, two strips of bacon, and a heaping spoon of eggs (or any requested combination of the foods mentioned). After all are served, those not wishing to ‘dine-in’ may pick up a carry-out meal. All left-over food is donated to shelters in the area. Replace the word love in the quotation above with the word food, and it illustrates the unique outreach of Kwanzaa Kitchen.

Food is patient, food is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Food does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres…
…as have those that have consumed breakfast from Kwanzaa Kitchen; particularly, given the substantial demographic transition that has occurred in the area over the past few years. Primarily, housing prices have increased, access to affordable housing options have decreased, and some shelters have closed.

Kwanzaa Kitchen may have served around 200 meals (~50 “first timers”) this past Saturday, but these numbers are above average in recent years. Perhaps, more area residents’ are acquiring food or breakfast through other means than in the past. But given the tough financial times and few places to purchase affordable foods or meals in the area this is unlikely.

Meanwhile, Janis has observed that “a lot of the indigenous residents have been pushed out. I very rarely see black children playing in the neighborhood anymore. I even think that Metro’s elimination of the paper bus token to ride the bus after you get off the train may have kept some patrons from getting to the breakfast because they can’t afford to buy a monthly bus pass.”

It is “the people,” or the camaraderie among volunteers and the warmth of the diners that keeps the volunteers coming back. Likewise, it is clear that patrons come back because, as one patron explains, “[Kwanzaa Kitchen is] like a restaurant to me, good service, beautiful ladies, very clean place, don’t have drama up in here, lots of respect, morals and values. People respect one another, say, ‘may I or can I.’”

Ideally, maybe one day, Kwanzaa Kitchen will be a real restaurant; also for and by the people. And may it not need to exist to fill a gap in America’s social service system.

June is short, so let’s seize the moment!

DC Food For All Workshop
Thursday June 3rd
6:00 – 8:00pm
Bread for the City
1525 7th St NW

Come be a part of the dialogue around food systems, justice, and access to healthy & affordable food in the DC metro area. Workshop discussion topics range (everything and anything from policy to community potlucks, from urban ag to culture) and are shaped by the participants. Tell us what interests you! Explore the blog for more info. RSVP or send questions to DCFoodforAll@gmail.com. When you do so, please let us know if you can bring something for potluck dinner and also share a bit about what interests you. And bring a friend, spread the word to other folks who might dig what we’re doing! Varying levels of experience always welcome.

As a recent American Prospect article made clear, not all farmers markets are geared toward shoppers who need fresh fruits and vegetables the most. Yet two markets in the District have opened or expanded this season to address that critical constituency.

The Howard University Hospital (HUH) began hosting a twice-weekly farmers market Tuesday, May 11, and will continue to feature produce from Pennsylvania and North Carolina farmers each Tuesday from 3 to 7 p.m. and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the hospital courtyard. The hospital is located in Ward 1 at 2041 Georgia Avenue NW, near the Shaw/Howard University Metro and steps off several Metrobus routes. The market accepts WIC and Senior CSFP vouchers.

The purpose of the market, according to a Howard press release, is to help address the scarcity of fresh fruits and vegetables in African American communities. With its location in Ward 1, the campus is a good place to start. The market is a project of the program HUH CARES, and has been commended by Dr. Denia Tapscott, a bariatrician and program director for the Center for Wellness and Weight Loss Surgery, as a service that can address the obesity epidemic among African Americans. The market may get a mention as part of EBONY Magazine’s year-long coverage of the center.

The Ward 8 Farmers’ Market starts its season on Saturday, June 5. The market, which carries a social justice mission, is now entering its 12^th season of bringing fruits, vegetables, herbs, plants, and more from Pennsylvania and Maryland to the heart of Congress Heights.  The market will be held every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the parking lot of the old Congress Heights School at 500 Alabama Ave. SE, near the Anacostia and Congress Heights Metro stations on the green line. For years, this area suffered from a dearth of grocery stores but an abundance of small corner stores, where fresh food makes up only one percent of the offerings.

The market will expand this year, creating the only weekday farmers market east of the Anacostia River.  Beginning on June 8, it will operate from the parking lot of the United Medical Center at 1310 Southern Ave. SE near the Southern Avenue Metro station on the green line. The market will run each Tuesday from 3 to 7 p.m. through October. Also new this year is a website for the market: www.ward8farmersmarket.com.

Both Ward 8 Farmers’ Market locations will accept EBT cards issued in D.C., SNAP cards issued in Maryland, the new WIC Cash Value Checks (CVC), and other food assistance coupons such as those offered by the WIC and Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program.

The market continues to provide vegetables and fruit to corner stores in Congress Heights, with the help of a grant from the Capital Area Food Bank, in exchange for the promise that they are sold to the public at reasonable prices.