Posts Tagged ‘farmers markets’

Posted by Christopher Bradshaw | July 11th, 2011

Aya Community Markets (Aya) is a community-centered economic and holistic health experience that combines education, farmers’ markets and community supported sustainable agriculture to provide access to healthy food and improved nutrition in “food deserts” and underserved communities in Washington, DC.

Join us for our launch on Saturday July 30th from 11am until 5pm at Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church (3000 Penn. Ave. SE).

Aya’s physical farmers’ markets will be a vibrant gathering places and destination points where consumers will come to not only shop for produce, but will be able to access various vendors for goods and services for mental, spiritual and financial health. This holistic approach will attract customers in search of other health experiences such as yoga, exercise classes, or credit counseling which help to improve the community.

Aya Community Markets will offer fresh, local produce, flowers, prepared foods and handcrafted items directly to Ward 7 residents. In addition Aya will host a wide range of family and nutritional programs, including live entertainment, chef demonstrations and youth activities.

Aya will feature:

• Fresh produce and baked goods;
• Handmade arts and crafts;
• Live musical performances;
• Massage therapy, acupuncture and other holistic health services.

Visit http://dreamingoutloud.org/ayamarkets for more!

Posted by Rhea Kennedy | October 11th, 2010

The Crossroads Farmers Market has always garnered attention – from the local and federal governments and from the media. Its Fresh Checks program and overall philosophy just seem to pull them. Now, USDA Under Secretary Kevin Concannon has requested a visit. Concannon, who serves as secretary of food, nutrition, and consumer services, will be at [...]

Posted by Maureen Linke | July 26th, 2010

[DC Food For All featured the Ward 8 Farmers Market last week, and this week bring you Maureen Linke's multimedia slideshow. See more at her website. —ed]

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 two locations.

Posted by Richard Layman | July 21st, 2010

[By Richard Layman, cross-posted from Urban Places and Spaces.]

In the round of the zoning update on food issues, I didn’t see fit to submit comments about urban agriculture, even though I guess I should have. Evidently, it’s still gonna be close to impossible to have poultry, not to mention there is little discussion of urban orchards, urban forestry, and other issues, even though people are concerned about “food deserts” and access to fresh foods.

According to the Washington Business Journal, in Cheh introduces “grocery ambassador” bill, Councilmember Mary Cheh has introduced legislation on the topic, calling for a grocery czar amongst other steps, but I think the legislation is somewhat narrowly conceived because this issue is about more than just trying to attract some grocery stores.

The real issue is a comprehensive plan for food security and foodways in the city. Grocery stores are but one piece.

The Community Food Security Coalition is an organization broadly focused on food access. Toronto and a number of other communities across North America have created “Food Policy Councils” to focus on food access at the local level, especially in urban places, and work to make more direct links between urban and rural food policy. (The bookThe Edible City looks broadly at Toronto’s foodways, food policies, and food industries. This paper, Food Policy Councils: The experience of five cities and one county, from 1994 discusses the disconnection of cities from foodways policymaking.)

Food Trust in Philadelphia has pushed food security and initiatives to increase the availability of fresh foods and supermarkets in underserved areas in the city and state.

Finally, the Economic Research Service of the USDA has created aCommunity Food Security Assessment Toolkit which provides a more systematic method for evaluating community food security and a planning framework for improvements.

The issue is tricky.

First, there is a conceptual problem with the food desert issue, because of how new urbanists and such are defining the need for access–a grocery store within easy walking distance–and the reality of how the supermarket industry is organized and focused on providing stores of 50,000+ square feet, serving retail trade areas of 50,000+ residents in a retail trade area five miles in diameter.

The reality is that not every neighborhood is large enough to support a full line grocery store the way that the grocery industry is set up to “deliver” supermarkets. Plus, many people are cost-conscious and end up patronizing stores where prices are lower (as opposed to smaller neighborhood-based stores). And the industry has worked hard at closing smaller, neighborhood stores in favor of larger single stores serving many neighborhoods.

Second, there are many grocery stores accessible to DC residents in neighborhoods that are seemingly understored, but the stores happen to be located just outside of the city in Maryland.

Washington Post image from the 2007 article “Signs of Change Line the Shelves.”

Third, we need to look at farmers markets and public markets more systematicaly as a way to deliver fresh foods to residents, not so much in the higher-income areas of the city, but in the “food desert” areas. Although these areas are hard places to make such markets work if their prices are higher than typical supermarket prices.

Posted by Stacy Braverman | June 28th, 2010

The District’s food stamp eligibility rules changed recently, making thousands of households whose income is between 133% and 200% of the Federal Poverty Level newly eligible for benefits.

Bread for the City’s legal clinic interns Zila McDowell, Bryan Evans, and Carrie Johnson recently called through the 151 food pantry clients who reported incomes in this range. The clients’ eligibility for benefits depends on several additional factors: their household size, income source (a job versus disability benefits and other unearned income), and certain household expenses. Based on the information they gave us, some of these clients became eligible for food stamps when the changes went into effect.

The interns helped interested clients complete a food stamp estimator, giving them a sense of the level of benefits for which they’d qualify. Carrie says, “clients I called were excited about the change in the food stamp program. Some only qualified for $16 [the minimum monthly benefit for 1- and 2-person households], but they still said ‘something is better than nothing…. I’ll take what I can get.’”

Even $16 in food stamps will stretch a little farther this summer thanks to Freshfarm farmers’ market’s “Double Dollars” program. We covered this program last summer and are pleased to report that this year it’s expanded from one to three farmers’ markets in the District (plus the Saturday market in Silver Spring):

Food stamp recipients who visit these markets can make up to a $10 charge on their EBT cards, and get twice the value of their charge in tokens to buy food at the market. (Several other markets take EBT cards and the $25 in “Get Fresh” checks provided to WIC and Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program recipients, but are not currently participating in double-dollar promotions. A new market at Howard University Hospital is also taking WIC and senior vouchers.)

According to Carrie, “Mr. P was incredibly excited about the farmers’ market double-dollars program. He was excited about being able to buy fresh produce in an open air market.” We’re glad that DC food stamp recipients can now extend their food budgets and access more nutritious, locally-grown food…and happy to have interns who help us share this good news with our clients!

Posted by Greg Bloom | March 12th, 2010

We received this letter that Bernie Prince, co-founder of FRESHFARM Market, sent to Dr. Pierre Vigilance of DC’s Department of Health earlier this week.

Ms. Prince notes that the new WIC Fruit and Vegetable Cash Voucher Program — which enables low-income mothers to redeem food assistance coupons at farmers markets — is currently limited by a registration process that hampers farmer participation. As reported here recently, farmers had only one opportunity (this past Wednesday) to train and register to accept WIC vouchers. Ms. Prince notes that there are other options to increase community participation in this promising program.

##

March 9, 2010

Dr. Pierre Vigilance
D.C. Department of Health
Washington, D.C.

Dear Dr. Vigilance:

I am writing to you on behalf of WIC recipients in Washington, D.C. and Maryland to urge you to expand access to fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables for low-income families. At FRESHFARM Markets, we were pleased to learn that D.C. will authorize market vendors to accept WIC Fruit and Vegetable Cash Value Voucher coupons (FVC). We applaud you for participating in this new program, and appreciate the District’s continued participation in the WIC Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP).

Unfortunately, based on feedback from farmers, we are concerned that the new FVC program will not reach its full potential here. One major hurdle is the training to participate. As you may be aware, there is currently one training session available, on March 10, in Greenbelt, MD. The training runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will require a two- to three-hour drive for many of our market farmers. The very same training for farmers market producers in Maryland covers all the necessary material in about one hour. In addition, while D.C. WIC farmers market coordinator Sabrina Lewis has scheduled just one training, James Butler, of Maryland’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, is planning multiple training sessions on 13 different dates in Greenbelt, Annapolis, Hagerstown, Baltimore, and Denton.

Based on a preliminary survey of farmers and our own experience, Maryland’s approach will significantly increase farmer participation. A member of the group DC Food for All, Daniel White, has conducted interviews with four of the farms that are most ubiquitous at markets within the District. One resounding finding: Farmers will not take part in a new or existing WIC program if it requires a large time investment and small earnings. The current training opportunities, in addition to other complaints such as the complex process of using WIC checks and delays in reimbursement, could limit the number of farmers willing to sell to low-income mothers.

I believe there is a simple step you can take to improve farmer participation in the WIC programs at farmers markets. Maryland and D.C. could craft an agreement to accept training for the FVC and FMNP across District and state lines.

Posted by gplotkin | March 8th, 2010

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.