Locally Grown Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Bring Summer Tastes and Nutrition to Your Family Table
On a Thursday morning around 11 a.m., a white van pulls up to the Freedom Park Head Start building. Energetic volunteers quickly begin to unload boxes revealing, beautiful, fresh, lush, and colorful vegetables. Stacks of carrots, beets, lettuce, collard and mustard greens, cilantro, onions, squash and green beans fill the tables. Then a sweet and overwhelmingly delicious smell of ripe fruit wafts through the air as strawberries, peaches, plums, nectarines and cherries and set out for display.
All of this activity is a result of a collaborative project between Health Education Council, Soil Born Farms and SETA Head Start. Thanks to grant funding from the First 5 Sacramento Commission, these organizations are now running two farm stands selling locally-grown, seasonal fruits and vegetables in an urban neighborhood where families with children ages zero to five previously had little access to fresh produce.
“Distressed urban areas often lack accessible grocery stores—which is the case in North Highlands. When families have to spend a half hour on the bus to buy food, they tend to take fewer trips to the store and are less likely to buy fresh food,” said Debra Oto-Kent, Founder and Director of the Health Education Council. “Our goal is to make it convenient and inexpensive for families to buy fruits and vegetables so that the overall health of the community improves.”
The Health Education Council approached SETA Head Start to partner with them in the project because a pre-school was the perfect fit for First 5 Sacramento’s goal to enhance the health and early growth experiences of children. Creating by the Prop 10 tobacco tax, First 5 Sacramento funds programs throughout Sacramento County that enhance the early growth experiences for children zero to five.
“Access to fresh fruits and vegetables is essential for the healthy development of children under the age of five,” said Roger Dickinson Chair of First 5 Sacramento and Sacramento County Supervisor. “First 5 Sacramento and its partners want the families of North Highlands to have the local experience of attending farmers’ markets and all the nutritious benefits associating from eating healthy foods.”
The farm stands also provide a vital means of income for the community. Head Start parents staff the farm stands and receive a weekly stipend, job skills training and a potential job reference for future employment. In addition, the First 5 Sacramento grant provides all Head Start sites with the opportunity to receive nutrition curriculum, teacher trainings, raised bed or wheel-barrow garden kits and garden training to set the garden kits up successfully.
When asked about the farm stand, Karin Ramirez, Site Supervisor for Freedom Park Head Start said, “I am really excited to get the kids into fruits and vegetables. Everything is well-priced for families to afford, so they get more for their money by buying here.”
This is a great opportunity to expose your children to a rainbow of fruits and vegetables and let them pick out the produce. It creates a family experience that everyone can be involved in.
The farm stands are open to all residents and can accept cash and EBT for payment.
“We do our best to keep the prices affordable while maintaining the highest quality. We are dedicated to supporting local farmers and making sure they receive a fair price so that they can continue to grow healthy food for our community,” mentioned Randy Stannard, Food Access Coordinator for Soil Born Farms.
The Freedom Park farm stand (6015 Watt Ave) is open every Thursday from 12 noon to 3 p.m. The other farm stand is located at Grant Skills Center (577 Las Palmas Dr.) in Del Paso Heights, every Wednesday from 7a.m. to 10:30 a.m.