News release from HEAL:
HEAL Urban Farmer’s Market Opens this Week
Promoting Community and Healthy Eating
(July 7, 2015) – Hundreds of hours put in at Slataper Street Farms by refugees, local neighbors living at Autumn Woods Apartments and teens from the Boys and Girls Club have all led up to the grand re-opening of HEAL’s McCormick Farmer’s Market for 2015 on July 8 from 5-7 P.M. The market will be held every Wednesday evening through September and will match WIC and SNAP vouchers, enabling individuals to double their purchase of fresh local produce.
Markets will not only offer fresh fruits and vegetables grown at the corner of McCormick and Edsall, across from the Fort Wayne Housing Authority’s McCormick Place Apartments, but will also offer free produce tastings and preparation demonstrations, along with ideas for recipes.
“I’m always excited about all the people coming out to get fresh vegetables that were grown locally,” said Gonzalee Martin, market manager and founder of GATE (Growth in Agriculture through Education). “That’s the key to this whole process: giving them fresh, locally-grown vegetables, and that’s what’s exciting.”
HEAL (Healthy Eating Active Living) is a three-year initiative of the St. Joseph Community Health Foundation and Parkview Heath. The goal of the program is to improve the health of the residents in low-income, food desert areas of Fort Wayne by introducing more healthy foods into their diets. The market at McCormick is co-sponsored with GATE and supported by the Fort Wayne Housing Authority. Other HEAL markets around the city are co-sponsored by Urban Grow. A HEAL Market Facebook page is maintained providing up-to-date information on each of the markets and featured recipes for anyone in the community.
Meg Distler, the Executive Director of the St. Joseph Community Health Foundation, said she is pleased to again support GATE and the McCormick Market. “Last year the McCormick Market was very successful in providing a lot of affordable, nutrient-rich, fresh food for several hundred customers in the neighborhood. This year, together with our HEAL co-Sponsor, Parkview Health, we are looking forward to working with GATE to offer additional cooking demonstrations and recipe samples focusing on great, easy ways to enjoy the harvest. We are also pleased that we will be able to provide matching funds for the SNAP and WIC clients, many of whom are new to purchasing fresh local food at farm markets.”
About the St. Joseph Community Health Foundation
The St. Joseph Community Health Foundation, sponsored by the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ, exists to steward resources that strengthen, improve, and sustain long-term community health in Allen County, Indiana. We invest in and collaborate with other community agencies to improve the physical, mental, and spiritual health of the poor and underserved.
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