In our steering committee meeting last evening, we discussed the next steps we need to take in order to be able to help people on lower incomes shop at Local Roots. This has been on our agenda for a long time, but we haven’t been able to push very far until we actually opened and had something for the government agencies to SEE and approve. That said, we are going to reapply for the food assistance program, and we’re going to look into the WIC coupons again. (The main holdup to date on that has been that as a farmers’ market, the individual farmers would have to have contracts with the program; we want to hold the contract as a store and take the paperwork burden off the producers. We will be persistent!!!)

We’ve still got a lot to do as a marketplace, but making sure EVERYONE has access to fresh and affordable food is one of our priorities, and we’ll do whatever we can to make that happen.

Thanks!
Jennifer

I have read that the U.S. grows a lot of the world’s garlic. Makes you wonder what happens to it. Kind of like the fact that we export X pounds of potatoes and import X pounds of potatoes – why don’t we just keep what we grow and not import them from other places?

Fortunately, there seem to be more and more local level philanthropic programs popping up such as HANDS in my county (Medina) and when we speak of sustainability I have to once again harp on local, community level individuals/organizations to step up to the plate (pun intended).

We seem to be rapidly approaching a time when groups of people have to demand the attention that the other special interests/lobbyists have hijacked and get the focus shifted toward some of our basic needs such as QUALITY affordable food.

It is refreshing to see so much interest and dialog in these ideals!

I think bartering is a great idea. Mr Chiots and I occasionally barter our work for things from other people and we’d love to do that more. Mr Chiots can design and code a mean website and we’ve made promotional videos for people as well. It is difficult in a money based society. That may be one good thing that comes from the recession we’re in, a resurgence of bartering.

Ironically enough, some of us from the Local Roots Market were discussing that very idea of barter (as well as community charity in general) at a gathering Saturday night after our viewing of the Polycultures video. We think an effective method might be to set up a barter page on the Local Roots site. One of the most important issues facing us is to shed any impression that this type of system is only for the elite, yet our producers certainly need to make a reasonable living in order to continue to provide healthy local food. It’s time we set aside these broad world/national political ideas/agendas and simply direct our energies at the community level. I can speak for many producers whom we associate with and rest assured, many of us also provide direct donations of food to various local causes (and not just the high exposure “sexy” ones). I am a producer member at Local Roots and suggest you post your comments/questions/ideas at the Local Roots site also so the board/steering committee members can see the interest people have in this.

Thanks Susy for this nice forum and thank you Annie for your thoughtful post!

Have a groovy day everyone!
– Kevin

Currently I know the vendors and how they farm, but I had to ask. I have my milk guy (who is organic and hormone free) who will be there all winter and he has my box ready to go. 2 gallons of Low Fat Milk, 1 quart of jersey cream, 2lbs of raw cheese – cheddar and goat, then there is my egg lady, hormone free chickens, fed organic grains, but not free range, however I didn’t see her this week when I went and I am hoping it is just because she was away for the weekend, as the other options are hormone free, organic feed, and free range, but they are more pricey $2.95/doz as opposed to my $3.75 for a flat (3 doz.). Then there are my Grass Fed Beef people (hormone free) and i love them. Then there is the Chicken and Pig guy (he had turkeys too, but since I wasn’t cooking this year I didn’t order one). And then my Organic Local Farm – which I get roots, and mustard greens this time of year. Then the local, organic hydropanic tomatoes people (they have peppers, onions and pears as the season permits (all pesticide free).
So I know who to avoid, and who to patronize, but I would love something that is more community driven (no importers or junk vendors) We have some smaller markets that I think are geared toward this but they are Wed and Thurs evening, so unless I get Bike Paniers this isn’t happening for me. I don’t think I would mind going by after work on Wed or Thursday picking the market that suits my needs, but I need bike paniers.
Tree´s last blog ..Burried in Girl Scout Cookies