Bridging the Gap of Local Produce and Low-Income

I had one of the busiest weeks of my fellowship this past week. We are gearing up for the Weeding Out Hunger workshop on food insecurity taking place this Wednesday and the amount of detail and reflection needed to make sure an event goes smoothly is tremendous. There must be a concrete purpose to an event with a desired outcome and everything in between should relate to each other and transition smoothly from one topic to the next. This becomes even more challenging in such a limited time frame of an hour and a half especially when tackling the topic of food insecurity. We had to keep reminding ourselves of the purpose and the constraints we were working under but after several brainstorming sessions and meetings going through every last minute of the workshop, I feel so much more prepared and focused. The planning of this workshop has been a huge learning experience. If anyone has ever planned an event for a large non-profit or corporation you know the intensity and the importance of making the details count. There is no room for the awkward transitions or loose agendas. There are techniques, facilitating, presentations, questions posed, notes and theme gathering. I am so excited to see how it plays out on Wednesday.On Thursday of last week I also attending the Columbus Public Health Farmers Market for people who receive food assistance from federal programs such as WIC and SNAP benefits. They receive vouchers that can be used like money at the markets to purchase local produce from surrounding areas. I have seen other farmers markets take SNAP benefits (food stamps) as well. It is truly where I think the gap of quality food and low-income can be breached and met head on. Many times the markets have a system where if you withdraw $10 of SNAP, you receive a $20 voucher worth of money to use at the farmers market. This allows for the usual deterrence of higher prices for farmers market goods to be mitigated and actually brings the price below most of the grocery store’s for the same products. The among the Foodbank, there were booths and stations set up with assistance services pertaining to new mothers, vaccinations, dental examinations, and the OSU extension program that offers free nutrition classes. Our table had cups of sliced radishes for people to try and I added some raw beets in there too. The best part of the market was when the kids would come up to our table and try the obscure vegetables without hesitation. Some weren’t too pleased with the radishes bitter finish but others grabbed more. I was really surprised. We also had computers set up with a mapping software that allows you to type in your zip code and view where produce markets are in relation to your residence. The produce markets are some of the fastest growing and in demand events the Foodbank facilitates.
Here are some photos I took of the Farmers Market