Improving Access at Farmers Markets

Farmers markets are often stereotyped as venues accessed primarily by upper-middle class, white individuals, because of where they are located or what forms of payment they accept.  However, fresh and tasty produce should not be reserved for those who lack barriers to access, and in the past few years a number of organizations have been working to improve access to fresh fruits and veggies at farmers markets.

Adelante Mujeres has been very engaged in the issues of access at the Forest Grove Farmers Market.  The market accepts a variety of federal nutrition program benefits which are given to low-income individuals and families including SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, more commonly known as food stamps), WIC Fruits& Veggies vouchers, and Oregon Farm Direct checks. 

The Forest Grove Farmers Market (FGFM) also participates in Wholesome Wave’s match program, where SNAP, WIC, and Farm Direct recipients can receive up to an additional $10 each market day which shoppers can use to purchase any fruits, vegetables, or plant starts sold by vendors.  This is an extremely popular program for FGFM attendees.  Wholesome Wave, a Connecticut-based NGO that focuses on uplifting small farms and creating food security, began the Double Value Coupon Program in 2008 in order to increase federal nutrition program benefits and improve local food economies.  Today, there are about 300 farmers markets participating in this matching program throughout the United States.

The Double Value Coupon Program has significantly grown since
 its inception and extended federal nutrition benefits.
(Click on the figure to enlarge it)

Even with these improved access policies, there is still the question of race.  The market was started by Adelante Mujeres which works to improve the lives of low-income Latina women and their families - one important feature of this mission would be ensuring that this community knows about the market and its options for access.  While a number of volunteers and vendors are graduates of Adelante Mujeres’ adult education, micro-enterprise, or sustainable agriculture programs, the Latino presence in terms of consumers at the market is relatively low compared to the portion of the Forest Grove population that they represent.  Thus, Adelante Mujeres has recently started handing out Adelante Incentive vouchers, which are good for $10 of produce at the market.  Adelante Incentive vouchers are given to women in the Adelante Mujeres’ adult education class as a reward for good attendance, and young women in the Adelante Chicas program will also hopefully soon receive vouchers.  There are also goals of expanding this Incentive program to provide vouchers to Latinos who are involved in other local organizations.

Lastly, the FGFM hosts some special events that also try to improve access.  The target populations for these events are seniors (Senior Day on May 30^th), youth (a kid’s club takes place all summer), and students (Student Day on September 26th).  There are also events that focus on health and safety (Bike Day on June 13^th and Wellness Day on June 27th).

Photo courtesy of Shawn Linehan and Adelante Mujeres

Many farmers markets still do not accept food stamps, which is a shame when nearly ½ million Americans are enrolled in the SNAP program.  These farmers markets, while perhaps doing so unconsciously, are continuing to reserve fresh, tasty, local, friendly, community-centered food for those who can access and afford it.  We need all farmers markets to start accepting federal nutrition benefits as forms of payment and to participate in programs that increase these benefits such as Wholesome Wave’s Double Value Coupon Program.

Follow Adelante Mujeres' Blog

I'm going to be posting some short articles on Adelante Mujeres' blog if you'd like to read them.  It's also a good place to learn more about the organization.

The Forest Grove Farmers Market went well this week and hopefully as the weather begins to warm up the vendor and buyer attendance at the market will continue to improve.  In addition to market, I've been working on trying to finalize a budget for Esperanza Distributor supplies, creating a post-harvest handling crop specifics guide for La Esperanza farmers, and have roped my dad into helping build a produce washing station at the farm.

Photos from market on the 24th (there aren't a ton of people because it was before the market had actually opened).  As usual you can click on any photo to enlarge it.

Adelante Mujeres' market truck

Market sign: pardon my imperfect Spanish.

Amaro's Produce, graduates of Adelante Agricultura's sustainable agriculture class.

Summer 2012 with Adelante Mujeres

La Esperanza- Please click on me to enlarge.

Hello everyone,

Welcome to the summer 2012 edition of my blog. For the next 2 months or so I will be interning with Adelante Mujeres in Forest Grove, Oregon. This is an organization which I volunteered with in the summer of 2009 and really wanted to re-connect with, so I set up an internship proposal with them and then received funding from my college to do it, so here I am!

Adelante Mujeres is a non-profit organization whose mission is the education and empowerment of Latina women and their families. Their main focus is adult and early childhood education courses, but the organization wears many other hats. In addition to holistic education, they have a girls empowerment program and a small business development (micro-enterprise) program.

For the summer I am more or less situated under the micro-enterprise division with the Adelante Agricultura program. Adelante Agricultura provides a 12-week sustainable agriculture training course to interested participants, and upon completion graduates have access to start their own small farming operation on a portion of Adelante Mujeres’ organic-certified La Esperanza Farm. I will be helping out occasionally with the demonstration plot at the farm, which the Adelante staff uses to teach agricultural principles.

Adelante Agricultura also operates the Forest Grove Farmer’s Market (founded by Adelante Mujeres in 2005). Some graduates of the Agricultura class sell their produce here (but the majority are too small or too busy), and a variety of other types of vendors from the local community also sell at the market. Every Wednesday I will be helping with the set-up and general operation of the market, which I also helped with back in 2009.

A third main task I have this summer is helping with the start up of La Esperanza Distributors, a project which Adelante Mujeres is creating in order to help the new farmers at La Esperanza Farm sell their produce. As with any produce distributor, farmers will sell their product to the distributor and the distributor will then sell product in bulk to local businesses. In the case of La Esperanza Distributors, the buyer is Adelante Mujeres and the local businesses who are buying the bulk product will be local school districts, local businesses, and local grocers. The buyer list includes Intel (serviced by Bon Apetit), New Seasons, and Head Start. As I research different supplies and procedures we will need to make La Esperanza a success and helpful for the farmers, I am finding that my 2010 summer with Green Corps (a group of 6 education-focused urban farms in Cleveland, Ohio) is coming in really handy.

I hope to post a blog every week about what I’ve been up to with the ag program at Adelante. I’ve already had 5 days of work thus far and have really enjoyed it: Adelante Mujeres is full of some really great, friendly, hardworking staff who are motivated to help me succeed in my internship.

Peace,

ET

P.S. About the photo: I spent Saturday untangling drip tape and doing some planting on the demonstration plot at La Esperanza, and all the farmers were out on their own plots doing the same. They couldn’t get anything in the ground earlier because the land was flooded during the winter months and the soil needed time to dry out. Thankfully, the farm also has a nice greenhouse where the plant starts are growing really well.