Last Friday was our third Free Farmers Market of the year, and our second at Bread for the City Southeast. And despite some serious rain, it was our biggest one yet!

In less than two wet hours, we gave away about 5500 pounds of pears, kale, watermelon, potatoes, and cabbage.

It also revealed tremendous need for more fresh produce in our community. People were very patient in the rain, willing to wait it out in order to have access to fresh produce. Hundreds of umbrellas stretched along the block.

Under the visage of our new mural (a fantastic achievement of Aniekan and Words Beats & Life, through the Murals DC initiative) it was a great community event.

As the line moved along, folks were treated to kale salad (prepared by Wendy Stuart, chef and DC coordinator of the upcoming Food Day) and apple-pear compote prepared by yours truly. All healthy, delicious, and affordable. We distributed hundreds of recipes along with these samples.

We also gave out lots of information about local affordable markets (including Dreaming Out Loud’s new AYA Market). I think this is one of the most important points of contact we make during these events: an opportunity to talk about how fresh food can be accessible and affordable, if you know where to look and how to take advantage of the deals like Double Value coupons.

(Read more about the efficacy of this kind of outreach in this blog post by our gleaning partner, Susan Birchler of the West End Farmers Market. Thanks Susan!)

 

We also had a visit from a class of students from Ketcham Elementary. The school had a food drive and they came to donate in person the food that was collected. Melissa Frazier, our Food Program Director, spoke to the children on the importance of

The big hero of this event was the Capital Area Food Bank. The Food Bank has seen this new initiative of ours and matched it in kind, through a special program funded by Kaiser Permanente, targeting large volumes of produce to food insecure neighborhoods east of the river.

Indeed, the most prominent feedback we received was about lamentably high produce prices at the grocery store. Folks asked us why we don’t do free markets every month. Well, maybe we should!

See the full set of photos here. Thanks to all our staff and volunteers!