How Does a Farmers Market Affect the Community?
Tomorrow the Kojo Nambe radio show on WAMU will interview Sharon Gruber of Bread for the City. Bread for the City is a DC based food bank with cutting edge ideas on food and nutrition for low income recipients. They “Glean” fresh food from farmers and farmers markets to distribute as a healthy alternative to the processed foods most food banks rely on.
Their website states
“Bread for the City rescues tens of thousands of pounds of fresh, free surplus produce. Gleaning is an ancient practice of salvaging food that would otherwise go to waste in a food system.” They glean from farmers, farmers markets and trees in the DC area. It is a novel and creative method of procuring food for distribution to low income families. (1)
Since Bread for the City provides a range of services including health care, it was important to them to support their health care initiative by providing fresh healthy foods for their customer base. Statistically it can be difficult to identify how the distribution of fresh food affects the habits of a community.
Fortunately, in January 2008, The American Journal of Public Health published an article by four doctors who completed an in-depth, statistical analysis of the long term practices of low-income women who received assistance for the purchase of fresh local fruits and vegetables.
The Essay on Fresh Foods vs. Canned Foods, Beach vs. City
Fresh foods are usually full of flavor and taste because they maintain all of the natural vitamins and minerals and they are consumed within a short time. Canned food, on the other hand, often lacks a clear flavor and tastes differently to fresh food since chemical products have been added to them to increase shelf life. In other words, fresh foods have a greater taste and flavor as they are ...
This was a two month study conducted in Los Angeles, using scientific methodology which documented reactions of a control group to economic subsidies for fresh fruits and vegetables. These doctors wanted to know if access to fresh foods at a good price could change eating habits – and it did!
Prior to this study, there were few quantitative studies on the effect on daily habits access to fresh foods might create. Kaiser Permanent did a small survey of patrons at their worksite farmers markets and discovered that nearly 3 of 4 shoppers reported that they consumed at least a few more fruits and veggies because of the market and more than half reported consuming an increased variety of fruits and veggies.(2)
According to the American Journal for Public Health article, people with low incomes are at risk for poor dietary quality and for low consumption of fruits and vegetables. There are many factors that contribute, the chief among them being the lack of green grocers, supermarkets or farmers markets in low income neighborhoods, as well as the cost of fresh foods and veggies compared to the low cost of high sugar, high carbohydrate foods like potatoes, pasta, and rice. The doctors conducting the study provided two things to promote the choice of fresh vegetables and fruits: 1. economic subsidies for fresh fruits and veggies in the form of SNAP coupons, and 2. they made sure there was a farmers market and/or grocery store within walking distance of the SNAP offices.
When you get into the middle of the article there are enough equations, percentages and statistics to give you a headache, so let me synthesize.
Access to an economic subsidy for fresh fruits and veggies, as well as a site to purchase them in, resulted in a large increase in consumption of fruits and vegetables during the study and afterwards as well.
“Farmers Market Participants showed an increase of 1.4 servings…” (complicated math – let’s just say it means people were eating fresh food at nearly every meal), while the “supermarket participants showed an increase of 0.8 servings.” “Participants redeemed more than 90% of the coupons and purchased a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables” Clearly people who frequented farmers markets were more likely to eat more fruits and veggies. This is probably because farmers markets are more fun than grocery stores. We don’t need a complicated scientific study to prove it, however this study states “farmers’ market participants thought produce at their site was fresher and of higher quality than at the supermarket”. Participants who purchased their produce at the farmers’ market also mentioned enjoying the pleasant “community experience” of meeting friends while shopping and interacting directly with growers. (3)
The Research paper on Market Research – Case Study Spaghetti Fettuccini
1. Establish the goals of research that should be developed. There are several goals of research that should be developed for Fettuccini S.A.. First of all, they need to properly analyze their current situation and know especially the Spanish consumer’s behaviour and expectations in order to adapt their product to the market’s demands. Also, they need to consider their potential new costumers. ...
Presently Bread for the City gleans at our market. We have a great relationship and love to see the truck drive up every week to haul off the goods. We support their efforts to promote healthy eating wholeheartedly.
