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Making WIC work for consumers and farmers

WIC Sign at Ward 8 Farmers Market

In a previous post, we explored a new Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program that helps low-income mothers buy more fresh produce at farmers markets. The new coupons are known as WIC Fruit and Vegetable Cash Value Vouchers, or FVC. This second post in the series looks at benefits of a similar nutrition assistance program already in place–the WIC Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP)–and yet more stumbling blocks in implementation of such programs.

First, the good news.

According to a report by the Community Food Security Coalition based on USDA numbers, 2.3 million WIC participants received farmers market benefits in 2008, spending about $20 million. During that year, 16,016 farmers and 3,367 farmers markets were authorized to accept FMNP coupons. The USDA awarded grants to each state, amounting to $301,302 for D.C. in 2009, while Maryland received $341,338 (Virginia received $291,212 in 2008, but declined to participate last year).

Also according to the report, evaluation of the program in Washington state showed that WIC recipients who used vouchers increased their knowledge and consumption of fruits and vegetables, and planned to keep coming to farmers markets in the future. Several D.C.-area markets–including the Crossroads market in Takoma Park and three of the markets run by FRESHFARM Markets–established very popular grant-funded “double dollar” programs, which matched the value of vouchers, increasing shoppers’ buying power and farmers’ income.

This works out for everyone–at least until bureaucracy or lack of participation get in the way.

Liz Falk, the former manager of WIC and food stamp programs for FRESHFARM Markets, says she saw very little in the way of advertising for the WIC FMNP. D.C.’s WIC administrators and the Department of Health could not — or would not — devote much funding to develop and distribute marketing materials, and different agencies were reluctant even to add each others’ information to existing materials. The situation will likely hold true for the FVC program.

More worrisome still: Falk says that “red tape is covering so much of what’s possible with these programs.”

The program’s certification process itself is problematic. As our first post mentioned, D.C. offers just one training for farmers who want to participate in the WIC FMNP, Senior FMNP, and FVC programs. (It’s set for this Wednesday, March 10 in Greenbelt, MD, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.)

By contrast Maryland offers multiple trainings on 13 different dates in Greenbelt, Annapolis, Hagerstown, Baltimore, and Denton. Each lasts an hour–from 10 to 11 a.m. or 1 to 2 p.m.

This is not to say that Maryland gets it all right: it has separate trainings for the FMNP and FVC programs, and each is administered by a different department – FMNP by the Department of Agriculture; FVC by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

All of this is enough to make a farmer’s head spin, and tempt her to drop participating all together.

“[Farmers] want to come, they want to sell produce, and they want to make a living,” says Falk. “Willingness to participate in a WIC program is primarily determined by perceived man-hours needed on the bureaucratic back-end to get enrolled and stay enrolled,” wrote Dan White, DC Food For All contributor, on our listserv recently. Raise the hurdles too high, and farmers will decide the program isn’t worth the earnings.

Crossroads Farmers Market staff have also seen a problem with reimbursement. This market, located just outside the District line in Takoma Park, MD, sees the majority of its customers come in with some form of nutrition assistance. In the three years that Crossroads has been in existence and accepting programs like the WIC FMNP, staff have heard numerous complaints from farmers who say that the reimbursement procedure is complex and the timeline is short. Unlike cash or bank checks, the WIC checks have expiration dates. Once the farmers and customers do successfully exchange a payment, the sellers often have to wait weeks or months to see it turn into cash. Similar problems loom for the new FVC program.

As the last post mentioned, DC Food for All members are asking whether this system can be improved. To learn more and become part of the conversation, join the D.C. Food for All discussion group.

Posted on March 8th 2010 in Access, Farmers, Government Issues | No Comments »

Composting Food Waste

Over the last two years of leading service projects in Washington DC, I have volunteered with several soup kitchens and homeless shelters. I respect and admire the work these organizations do. They help some of our most forgotten citizens.

One thing I love about some of these organizations is that they do great work rescuing unwanted food. For example, last year Bread for the City started its Glean for the City program, which gathers vegetables from local farms — all for free. And one of the better known examples of food-reclamation in the country was founded here in DC in 1989 — the DC Central Kitchen started off making meals for the homeless from the leftovers from the Presidential Inauguration festivals. These days, they rescue more than 600,000 pounds of food a year.

But in some cases at several social service organizations, I see a large amount of food waste ends up in the trash. I often wonder: Can these organizations compost? Is there a way to ‘close the loop’ on this process, to give back to the fields that produce the food? In response to these questions I raised to the DCFoodforAll Google Group, representatives from the Common Good City Farm, located near Howard University, say that the farm will start accepting compost from community members.

This may be just the start of a series of such community composting opportunities. In another response to these questions, the Director of Kitchen Operations at Miriam’s Kitchen, Steven Badt, noted that — even if there were local sites to compost — even a well-run service organization like Miriam’s would be daunted by the volunteer resources that regular composting would require. Also, there’s the question of volume: Badt estimates that the Kitchen ends up with fifty or a hundred or more gallons of food waste every day — “There is no way a community garden could handle/manage the amount.” He did note, however, that Miriam’s Kitchen will switch trash hauling companies in January 2011 to a company that does industrial composting. (This is just one of the green initiatives that they are undertaking there. Also they are looking at hiring a night green cleaning crew for their building. )

There are other opportunities on the horizon. Included in the DC Government’s proposed Healthy Schools Act, introduced by DC Council member Mary Cheh and Chairman Vincent Gray, there will be money set aside for a DC Schools compost pilot project. This could be a way to start a large scale composting program.

DC wouldn’t have the first large scale composting program in the nation. San Francisco implemented a mandatory composting law with fines for residents or businesses that throw anything compostable in the trash. Composting Bins in San Francisco (Image from www.treehugger.com) (When the law went into effect, most of the city was already in compliance, because many companies and landlords already changed their practices.) Currently the city of Denver has a pilot residential composting program happening. And in Milwaukee, Will Allen of Growing Power says that his organization compost more than twelve million pounds of food waste yearly that came from a variety of different sources, from breweries to private homes.

Can Washington DC become another city to require composting? We are already the first city to install a bag tax. What would intermediary steps look like? A composting law could be years away. Could we start picking up small qualities of compost from social services agencies to take to community gardens? What are other ideas?

One of the first steps we can take is to support the Healthy Schools Act: On March 26 DC Council is holding a hearing on the Healthy Schools Act at 11 am in Room 500 of the John A. Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.

What if the DC government created something like Baltimore Public Schools’ Great Kids Farm, a 33 acre educational farm in Catonsville, Maryland in response to this act? Class Trip to Great Kids Farm (Picture from washingtonpost.com)

Let’s show support for the DC Schools Compost Pilot Program. This could be the first step towards closing the loop in getting food waste back to the land instead of the landfill.

Here are more details about the March 26 hearing:

Anyone wishing to testify at the hearing should contact Ms. Aukima Benjamin, staff assistant to the Committee on Government Operations and the Environment, at 724-8062, or via e-mail at abenjamin@dccouncil.us. Witnesses should bring 15 copies of their written testimony to the hearing. If possible, witnesses should submit a copy of their testimony in advance of the hearing to abenjamin@dccouncil.us. Witnesses will be allowed a maximum of three (3) minutes for oral presentation.

If you are unable to testify at the hearing, written statements are encouraged and will be made a part of the official record. Copies of written statements should be submitted either to the Committee on Government Operations and the Environment, or to Ms. Cynthia Brock-Smith, Secretary to the Council, Room 5 of the John A. Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C., 20004. The record will close at the end of the business day on April 2, 2010.

Thanks to Steven Badt, Greg Boom, Rebecca Kantar, Greg Plotkin, Jenn Roccanti, and Carl Rollins for their assistance on researching this topic on the DCFoodforAll Google Group.

Posted on March 3rd 2010 in Access, Farmers, Food Security, Government Issues, Organizations, Schools | 1 Comment »

One Hundred Acres and a Tractor

tractor Food and Health: the two go hand in hand. In many areas of the country, food insecurity, poverty and obesity are also terms that go hand in hand. Safeway is in the neighborhood one day and gone the next. This is the reality of urban communities where fast food restaurants dominate the food landscape. Corner grocery stores fill in the gaps for full stop supermarkets, but the pickings are slim to none when it comes to local and organic produce — and the fruits and vegetables are expensive and not exactly fresh. In these neighborhoods, hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease are pervasive and increasing.

Where is the food justice? One place to look is in Beltsville, Md.

The District of Columbia owns over 50 acres of land in Beltsville, which is managed by the University of the District of Columbia(UDC). There, UDC houses an agriculture experiment station used for research, investigation and experiments. Dr. James Allen, a UDC professor, was profiled in a recent Washington Post article on the benefits of pigweed, a leafy vegetable high in Vitamin A.

UDC, a land grant institution, stood to gain almost $10 million dollars from the recent farm bill for use with community outreach and research. While I truly appreciate and understand the need for research and experimentation, I also understand that 12% of households in DC suffer from food insecurity. And yet the majority of the land that DC owns is unused and unproductive.

This relatively unknown and underutilized gem in the coffers of the D.C. government can help decrease the incidence and prevalence of food insecurity in D.C.

Take, for instance, the Food Project in Boston and Ma’o Organic Farms in Hawaii which offer examples of the economic and health benefits of sustainable agriculture. Ma’o Organic Farms grows certified organic produce on 25 acres of land in a community plagued by food insecurity, teen pregnancy, juvenile arrests, cancer and heart disease; a community similar to some of D.C’s wards. The young participants in this program are involved in educational and youth leadership programs in addition to social enterprise. The Food Project engages teens in programs which encourage leadership as well as providing vocational skills through their CSA, farmers’ market and work with hunger relief organizations.

A similar program on D.C. owned farm in Beltsville has to be included in the war on hunger.

We live in an area filled with contradictions and uncertainty. The food secure and the food insecure intersect at hunger relief organizations which provide needed services. Most families, however, would prefer to feed themselves. Living with the uncertainty that food insecurity brings can trigger mental instability. Providing food directly to DC citizens from D.C. land could potentially provide the economic, social and health benefits needed to stem the tide of illness, unemployment, hunger and poverty. The time is now to use this land for food and families.

Fenty Farms anyone?

Vicki Reese is a healthcare professional and the owner of 5 A DAY CSA a company dedicated to providing fresh organic/ locally grown food and supporting farmers. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Posted on March 1st 2010 in Access, Farmers, Food Security, Government Issues | No Comments »

WIC at Farmers Markets: Will DC Miss an Opportunity?

WIC Sign at Ward 8 Farmers Market

A revamped Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program — which provides low-income single mothers with cash value vouchers good for fruits and vegetables — will soon include a farmers market component. This is a promising opportunity.

But the program is currently designed in ways that will create tension with recipients, farmers, and administrators.

As of October 1, 2009, the USDA required all states to implement the new WIC Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP). Through FMNP, WIC recipients can use the $6 to $15 monthly Fruit and Vegetable Cash Value Vouchers (or CVVs) just like cash to purchase a wide range of produce (PDF). (Check out a nice, clear explanation of the benefits here). The revised program will increase the voucher value for pregnant, breastfeeding, and partially breastfeeding women from $8 to $10 per month. And when the new market season rolls around, recipients can also use the vouchers at farmers markets. The previous WIC program, by contrast, provided only $30 worth of coupons for the entire May-through-November market season. It’s a significant increase.

But each state has the choice of whether to train and authorize farmers to accept those CVVs. Both Maryland and D.C. have opted in to the program. Virginia, on the other hand, recently canceled it.

Maryland has given the program every chance to succeed by including a variety of training options for farmers (including at market, and using trainers who have worked extensively with farmers market vendors). It will be pretty easy for farmers to become registered for the program, as the state will provide multiple trainings in different locations — and each only an hour-long.

D.C.’s Department of Health, by contrast, will offer only one training (on March 10th). It’s an all day training, and it’s in Greenbelt, MD.

The District has other options for facilitating participation in WIC programs at farmers markets. For instance, one Maryland official ~~will recognize~~ has expressed interest in recognizing the registration of farmers who undergo the D.C. FMNP training — freeing farmers up to sell across state and district lines. Although it would go through a different agency than the older FMNP, a similar agreement may be possible for the fruit and vegetable vouchers. As of now, D.C. has expressed no such interest in a reciprocal arrangement.

The arrangement has raised concerns among market coordinators and healthy food advocates alike. This is a program with proven positive results for both WIC recipients and farmers, and yet for farmers to participate in the District, they have only one chance to attend all-day training — in the middle of a critical season.

A group of DC Food for All members have recently been discussing the issue. As the March 10 training date approaches, we are asking:

How can D.C. make its program more conducive to farmers’ participation?

What might bring the program back for Virginians?

What is the best way to reach WIC recipients?

Those questions could shape a new campaign in the movement for fresh, healthy food for everyone. Join our discussion group to learn more.

Photo credit: A sign at the Ward 8 Farmers Market shows that vendors accept the WIC FMNP.

Posted on February 26th 2010 in Access, Farmers, Government Issues | 2 Comments »

Columbia Heights Community Marketplace Almost Ready to Sprout

About a month ago, the Columbia Heights Community Marketplace reached out to neighborhood residents (see this post) to learn what people would like to see at the Market. More than 250 people responded in person and online.

Survey respondents chose weekends as their ideal time to attend the market; Saturday edged out Sunday as the preferred day for people taking the survey, and it got the nod from many farmers who might end up selling food at the Market. Thanks to all of you who put in your two cents to achieve a better understanding of what residents would like to see in their Columbia Heights Community Marketplace.

The excitement begins on Saturday, June 5, 2010, the first day of the Columbia Heights Community Marketplace – to be located at the Civic Plaza at the intersection of 14th and Kenyon streets and Park Road, NW. It will run every Saturday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., from June 5 through October 30, 2010.

As the Market takes shape, creating a well rounded and diverse weekly event is important. This includes having all of the Market’s produce growers being WIC certified and finding ways to subsidize WIC stamps 2:1 so that all Columbia Heights residents can afford to buy fresh, local food. Our market manager, Robert Schubert, will also be trained to administer Food Stamps and there will be a Food Stamp machine at the market.

Another focal point of the market planning process has been developing a pilot program that will bring entrepreneurial opportunities to local youth so that they gain understanding of and experience in the farming, marketing, sales, and outreach aspects of their own local food system. On a similar note, the Dance Institute of Washington, an established organization focusing on youth outreach, will be performing at the market throughout the summer. (Read more on the DIW here.)

We are looking to local chefs to provide cooking demonstrations at the market. These demonstrations will help promote our local businesses and educate consumers on new and healthy ways to cook using seasonal ingredients. Finally, we plan to have live music and other forms of entertainment every Saturday, making the market a community event that draws on many aspects of the culturally and socially diverse Columbia Heights neighborhood.

If anyone has suggestions or would like to volunteer some time to the development of the Columbia Heights Community Marketplace, please contact us at chcommunitymarketplace@gmail.com. Our next meeting, always open to the public, will be on Thursday, March 4th at 6:30pm at the office of Change Inc; 1413 Park Road NW. We hope to see you all in June, if not before!

Thanks again to everyone who responded and shared their thoughts on the food, activities, and community services that will combine to make the Columbia Heights Community Marketplace the best it can be!

Posted on February 24th 2010 in Community, Farmers | 7 Comments »

RootingDC 2010 Sneak Preview: Cooking Demonstrations

With shovels a RootingDC 2010 nd forks, local food justice advocates will descend on the Historical Society of Washington tomorrow for Rooting DC, the District’s own urban agriculture forum. Workshops are organized around four themes–production, distribution, preparation and preservation–in order to explore how food finds its way from the field to our forks.

For the first time in it’s 3-year history, Rooting DC will feature cooking demonstrations. Steve Seuser, who planned and coordinated the demonstrations, says that presenters will share how to prepare cooked, raw, and fermented foods, as well as canning basics. In particular, the demonstrations will feature recipes that are fast and affordable for families, as well as processes for gardeners who grow a lot and aren’t sure what to do with the overabundance.

Trayce McQuirter

Tracye McQuirter, a nutritionist with the UDC Center for Nutrition, Diet, and Health, will present during Workshop Session 2. We talked with Tracye about the importance of eating healthy and also got a sneak peak of her cooking demonstration. Read on:

Can you give us a sneak peek into your workshop at Rooting DC? What will you be cooking? What messages will you be focusing on?
I’ll be preparing Spicy Kale Salad, which is usually a big hit wherever I go. My goal is to show people how easy it is to prepare fresh greens in really satisfying ways that keep the nutrients and flavor alive and dazzling.

Why do you think it’s important to eat local, organic food or grow your own?
Growing and eating your own food gives you a sense of satisfaction in your soul that few things can so easily match. It’s also cheaper, more convenient, and more sustainable to grow your own food or eat the food grown by your neighbor, community, or local farmer.

It seems like empowerment is an important part of your work. In your classes, how do you use food to empower people?
Most folks in this country are masters at eating unhealthy food. I empower people by showing them how and why to become masters at eating healthy food. We look at who profits from our unhealthy eating habits and why what we eat is directly tied to whether or not we will have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, overweight, diabetes, heart disease, and a host of other killer diseases. Then we look at how to take matters into our own hands by learning to read food labels, choose healthier ingredients, and prepare lots of healthy and delicious dishes.

When teaching people about food and nutrition, what strategies or techniques do you find most effective?
In the course of my work, I teach people who are ages 3 to 83, so the tools that I use vary. For example, when I do food demos for little ones, I make sure to engage each of the five senses, so that might include singing a healthy food song and identifying the colors of each ingredient in our recipe.

You’ve been working on these issues for years. Do you sense a shift in people’s attitudes toward healthy eating and fresh produce? If so, how?
I’ve noticed that people are more comfortable saying that they want to eat healthier foods and are less likely to feel defensive about it. That is a paradigm shift. I’m hopeful that this shift will continue to grow and evolve into a desire to eat more fresh, plant-based foods and fewer animal foods for the health of ourselves and our planet.

Tracye McQuirter’s new book By Any Greens Necessary will be published on May 1, 2010. Contact her at www.byanygreensnecessary.com.

Rooting DC 2010 will be held tomorrow, February 20th, at the Historical Society in downtown DC.

[Cross posted to Field to Fork Network]

Posted on February 19th 2010 in Community, Events, Farmers, Food Security, Health, Organizations | No Comments »

Bringing it all back home: Reflections on a Bikeable Feast

I met Ibti at Rooting DC 2009. Last February, this plucky foodie had quit her job as an English teacher and was learning to ride a bike for the first time. A year later, she’s biked her way from DC to Vermont to Milwaukee to Seattle visiting sustainable farms and urban agriculture projects along the way. I’ve been following her on her blog, A Bikeable Feast, and as she heads towards Phoenix, I asked her to reflect on her experiences one year later and what she might bring back home with her. Here’s what she said:

I’ve been on the road for nearly 10 months now and seen quite a bit of the country’s diverse food systems. I do plan to make my way back to DC this summer and share what I’ve learned with those who might be interested in models for community-based food systems. As a sneak preview, Liz has asked me to offer a few thoughts on exceptional models that I have encountered thus far and how we might learn from them as we move forward with plans to make DC a thriving, community-based, food secure city.

intervale veggie pick-up The first example I would offer is The Intervale — the wildly successful farm community and farmer incubation project in Burlington, VT. During the growing season, community members gather at the farms each weekend to pick up their boxes of fresh, organic produce; Friday evenings offer live music, local brews, and flatbread pizzas; young farmers apprentice with experienced ones to learn the trade, share the cost of equipment, and develop plans for their own operation.

The site of the Intervale was actually a former floodplain and later a trash dump. It was cleaned out and cleaned up and now is in many ways the heart of Burlington’s burgeoning food system. Might we not develop a similar grouping of urban farms along the waterfront in, say, Southeast DC? I wonder. It could potentially turn this quadrant of the city from a food desert to a food haven. Just a thought.

The second model that comes to mind is the community food system in Madison, WI — another city of comparable size to DC (I think). There is a thriving local food culture in Madison, with many small farms and CSAs. And yet, instead of being in competition — as a traditional market might dictate — the producers support each other, sharing the idea that the more the collective farms succeed, the more able they are to feed everyone.

Farmers are notoriously independent and isolated. Not so with the young (and not so young) farmers around Madison. There are a few things that might explain this anomaly, but I think it comes down to community support. First, there is MACSAC (Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition), a group that works on everything from building farmer customer bases to subsidizing low-income CSA shares to facilitating internships at CSA farms. There are also groups like REAP (Research, Education, Action, and Policy) Food Group — a coalition that works to build a stronger regional food system and better-educated eaters through programs like Homegrown Lunch and publications such as the Farm Fresh Atlas. And, finally, there are educated consumers — CSA shareholders, restauranteurs, farmers’ market shoppers, co-op members — who support these devoted farmers.

A similar group could evolve in DC, I believe, with the development of an active, supportive food policy council. (And I understand from my ears on the ground in the District that there’s been some discussion recently of forming just such a group. Hey, I may be on the road, but DC is always close to my heart and I’m trying to keep up with the exciting new developments.)

The third notable example of a community truly coming together to improve food security in their area is the Noyo Food Forest, based in the tiny coastal town of Fort Bragg, CA. The NFF has partnered with a growing number of diverse, local programs and businesses to beautify the landscape, educate, and grow fresh fruits and vegetables.

There’s a Head Start garden, where lunch and snacks are grown for the low-income-based preschool education program and an NFF staffmember runs weekly activities for youngsters and their parents. (Unfortunately, the timing of my visit didn’t coincide with a lesson, but it sounds like a great program from what I can tell. Incidentally, improving child nutrition continues to be one of the strongest elements of Head Start programs across the country. It seems fitting that the tots and their parents learn how to grow and eat fresh, healthy veggies here.)
food - altoona, ia
Something that really impressed me during my time learning about the Noyo Food Forest was its amazing success with partnerships. This is partly because the need for pooled resources (money and land) brings NFF to the table with local groups but it is also because there are natural connections between gardening and so many aspects of community development. The Noyo Food Forest is working to empower folks to feed themselves, but the gardens are, in the process, fostering healthy communities as well. It’s the kind of program that could be replicated in many other places, adapted for different communities while maintaining its core philosophy of building healthier communities.

Awareness about food and nutrition is on the rise in our fair city, thanks in part to the unflagging efforts of the First Lady. (Love her! And I’m dying to visit the White House garden!) DC has the potential to really be a model for local food security and community that the rest of the country can look to. Let’s get to it!

Want to talk more about how to make DC a model of community food security? Come to Rooting DC 2010, DC’s very own, still free urban agriculture conference this Saturday at the Historical Society of Washington, 801 K Street NW.

Liz Whitehurst also works on the brand new Field to Fork website.

Posted on February 17th 2010 in Access, Farmers, Food Security | 1 Comment »

Introducing DC’s Field to Fork Network

DC’s Field to Fork Network includes dozens of organizations working in Washington, DC to foster regional change in how we approach our food. Members of the Network represent urban gardeners, farmers’ markets, distribution co-operatives, food banks, local government agencies, academic institutions, nutrition educators, community organizers, and cooks – our work encompasses everything between a gardener’s or farmer’s field and your fork!

Sounds a little bit like the DC Food for All, eh? The difference is that the Field to Fork Network is focused specifically on urban agriculture. Further, the Field to Fork website will be less focused on the local food news and city policy analysis you’ve come to expect from the DC Food for All, and more a space for you to learn how to get your hands dirty – literally. That said, we’re in this food movement together and we’ll be building a strong partnership between the two resources.

Organization as a Network will strengthen the linkages between community gardening, food preparation, and nutritional outreach, resulting in a “field to fork” network that will:

encourage the use of underutilized green space within the District for agriculture,
support diversity, abundance, affordability thus, consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables,
expand health and economic benefits by increasing access to fresh produce, and
engage participants and volunteers in outreach and educational opportunities throughout the year.

2010 marks the third year that many of these organizations have collaborated to put on Rooting DC, an annual day-long forum for urban gardeners. (To find out more and to support the conference, come out to the Rooting DC Happy Hour fundraiser tonight at Commonwealth Gastropub. 3rd annual Rooting DC tonight.)

Throughout the year, Rooting DC coordinators have written monthly email newsletters outlining upcoming events, volunteer opportunities, and workshops put on by the partners. Now in creation of the Field to Fork Network website, this information will be easily organized and accessible on-demand at www.fieldtoforknetwork.org!

Use this website to

gather resources for gardeners,
find upcoming volunteer opportunities in urban ag projects,
learn about upcoming workshops,
find info on bringing a wider of diversity of crops to your gardening community,
get recipes for local seasonal produce, or
just stay up to date on DC’s field to fork news.

We hope you will find this website a valuable resource as we grow over the course of the next few months. Please feel free to make suggestions for what additional information or resources ought to be included, by emailing us at DCFieldtoFork@gmail.com

Posted on February 2nd 2010 in Access, Events, Farmers, Organizations | 1 Comment »

Ramping up Farm to School in “Healthy Schools”

Could a centralized storage, processing and distribution kitchen be key to providing wholesome, local produce to the District’s school children?

“Healthy Schools” legislation pending before the D.C. Council would require that city schools use locally grown farm goods in school meals “whenever possible.” With some 60,000 students to be fed on a daily basis, that certainly would represent a boon to the local farm economy. But is it feasible? How can we convince farmers to bring their products into the District? And how can we store vegetables from a growing season that doesn’t exactly coincide with the school year? How can we get these local foods to schools for an affordable price?

Farm to School stakeholders met to discuss with staff for Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3), author of the “Healthy Schools” bill, how legislation could encourage farm to school programs in the District, and solve some of the issues facing existing food programs. A diverse crowd filled a conference room in the Wilson building last Thursday – food service providers, a farmer, the Director of Office of the State Superintendent’s Wellness and Nutrition division, Cooperative Extension Service agents, a farmers’ market director, and others.

D.C. Central Kitchen staff were among those who added an important voice to the meeting. DCCK has been developing its own system for gathering and processing produce from farms in the Shenandoah Valley and distributing them to the 5,000 clients it feeds daily. Representatives from DCCK described how they chop, vacuum-pack and freeze fresh farm goods on a regular basis, both for serving city shelters and in their school food service operation at Washington Jesuit Academy.

There was no doubt that Councilmember Cheh’s office was impressed with the descriptions of the cost-effective operational model that Central Kitchen has created – especially the impact the program has had on schoolchildren they serve. If Mary Cheh’s staff wants to get serious about getting more healthful, local foods into D.C. schools, creating a scaled-up version of DCCK’s transport/storage/processing facility should be high on their agenda.

A few ideas developed throughout the meeting. Top of the list was the possibility of the city providing a warehouse where this kind of processing modeled by D.C. Central Kitchen could be ramped up to match the needs of District schools. There are solutions to farm to school logistical issues (transport, storage, processing, etc.) that can be dealt with in the private and non-profit sector without being codified into law, however.

I think everyone agreed that setting stringent requirements that local farm goods be “sustainably” produced, as contained in the current bill, may be asking too much, since no precise definition seems to exist for what constitutes “sustainable.” Better, we think, to require schools to disclose where their foods are coming from, and simply urge that they be produced according to eco-friendly principles.

We also agreed that an across-the-board increase in school meal reimbursements from the D.C. government is needed to cover the farm-to-school preferences and other nutrition requirements included in the bill, perhaps as much as 12 cents or more per meal. And we need to mandate that schools and other organizations collaborate in promoting the farm-to-school idea and teaching it in the schools.

This working group meeting was a breakthrough for our efforts to get a farm-to-school program up and running here in the District. Mary Cheh and her staff gave us a great excuse to bring the right people together to have a real discussion, and we credit them immensely for it.

The legislation is headed for public hearings next month.

Andrea Northup is coordinator of the D.C. Farm to School Network

Posted on January 22nd 2010 in Farmers, Schools | 4 Comments »

Year-round farmers markets in the D.C. area

Update: The January 13 Washington Post included an article on what folks can find at D.C.’s year-round farmers markets, complete with a great guide to many more markets than you see below.

Here in the Chesapeake Bay area, with our tomato-rich summers and squash-happy falls, it can be easy to shop locally. After Thanksgiving, one might expect the pickings to become scarce — but as it turns out, the D.C. metro area has seen a sharp uptick in the number of farmers markets that remain open for the winter season, selling local produce, meats and cheeses even in the cold and snowy months.

When I first wrote about year-round farmers markets in the D.C. area for my food blog, I could only scrounge up four. Various commentators and twitterers helped me identify six more area farmers markets that operate through the winter, bringing the total number to 10.

Unfortunately, many of the markets that accept food assistance vouchers during the summer are not able to do so through the winter — I’ve noted those in the list below (compiled with appreciation to those who provided insider community information).

Year-round farmers markets in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia

Good news: Although several area farmers markets have closed for the season, plenty stay open year-round, although the number of vendors at these markets is usually sharply reduced and the produce selection typically is limited to storage varieties–apples, onions, potatoes, squashes, turnips and so forth. But more farmers are growing hardy greens and salad mixes as well, and you can often find a variety of prepared foods such as cider, jams and breads.

Here is a list of markets in and around D.C. that keep selling through the winter. Most of these feature exclusively local farmers and food artisans who use sustainable practices. But be sure to ask if you are trying to avoid foods grown with artificial fertilizers or pesticides as farmers who use these typically do not identify themselves at farmers markets. And feel free to comment if you know of other year-round farmers markets!

D.C.

All of these markets accept WIC “Get Fresh” Farmers Market Nutrition Program (WIC FMNP) and Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Coupons (Senior FMNP) from May 1 to November 15.

Dupont Circle Farmer’s Market* – Sundays, 10 am to 1 pm during the winter and 9 am to 1 pm the rest of the year, near the Dupont Circle Metro’s North exit. Read more about this market.

Eastern Market **- Saturday and Sunday, 7 am to 4 pm 7th St. SE near Eastern Market Metro

D.C. Farmers Market**- Tuesday and Thursday, 7:00 am-5:30 pm, Friday and Saturday, 7:00 am-6:30 pm, Sunday, 7:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. 1309 5th St. NE near the New York Ave./Florida Ave./Gallaudet University Metro.

New Morning Farm Market – Saturdays, 8 am – 1 pm (June through the beginning of winter), 9 am -1 pm (winter time through mid-March) and Tuesdays 4 – 8 pm from late spring through fall (early June through the end of September). The Saturday market is closed from mid-March through June. Sheridan School, 36th St. and Alton Pl., NW. Near the Van Ness/UDC Metro and the V8 and L2 bus routes.

Maryland

Bethesda Central Farm Market*-Sundays 9 am-1 pm through the Sunday before Christmas in the parking lot on Elm Street between Woodmont Ave. and Wisconsin Ave.; Sundays 10 am-1 pm starting January 10. Thursdays 3-7 pm at Bethesda Lane (on Bethesda Row), summer through late fall. Near the Bethesda Metro.

Update: Kensington Farmers Market-Saturdays, 8 am -12 noon at the MARC train station on Howard Avenue.

Silver Spring FreshFarm Market*-Saturdays, 9 am to 1 pm, downtown on Ellsworth Dr., near the Silver Spring Metro. Accepts WIC FMNP and Senior FMNP June 1-October 30. EBT processing available.

Takoma Park Farmer’s Market*- Sundays, 10 am to 2 pm all year, Carroll Ave., near the Takoma Metro. Accepts WIC FMNP and Senior FMNP June 1-October 30.

Virginia

Alexandria Farmer’s Market *- Saturdays, 5:30-10:30 am (some sources say only until 10 am), 301 King St. From Braddock Road Metro, take a 29N, 10B, or DASH 5 bus.

Arlington Farmers Market*-Saturdays, 8 am to noon Arlington County Courthouse Parking Lot, at the intersection of N. Courthouse Rd. and N. 14th St. Near the Courthouse Metro.

Falls Church Farmers Market*-Saturdays, 9 am-noon January through April; 8 am-noon May through December City Hall Parking Lot, 300 Park Ave. From East Falls Church Metro, take bus 28A, 3A, or 2C.

*Producer-only market

**These have a farmers market feel, but sell many nonlocal products. If you’re looking to buy from the farmers or to buy local, ask the vendors if they grew the food or if they bought it wholesale.

Photo: A shopper braves a freezing December rain at the Dupont Circle FreshFarm Market. Photo by the author.

Posted on January 5th 2010 in Access, Community, Farmers | 3 Comments »