A market featuring local, organic and healthy produce will be available through November at 2555 Flea Avenue in Bloomhouse.
Every Wednesday, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., farmers and customers have been meeting at the East Palo Alto Farmers Market since May and will continue through November.
It encourages the sale of locally produced food to low-income communities. The market is an initiative of the nonprofit Fresh Approach, and they work with California family farms to offer their produce in a space where East Palo Alto residents can access low-cost, healthy food.
In addition, Fresh Approach has an assistance program to access products at a lower cost than regular sales and even offer them for free. For example, this program has provided nearly $25,000 in free food to benefit the Cal Fresh program.
Fresh Approach Food Access Program Coordinator Vera Cordova Mendoza said, "For a place like East Palo Alto, where you don't have easy access to a grocery store where people can find locally produced, organic, healthy food, it's extremely important to support the community, especially in this time when, for some, money can be a limiting resource."
It is estimated that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to the closure of a large number of businesses and, with it, an increase in the unemployment rate in the Bay Area, so it is of utmost importance to address the community's first needs, such as the right to healthy food.
The San Francisco-Marin Food Bank reported that the number of households served weekly due to food shortages has approximately doubled from 32,000 before the pandemic to 60,000 households today. The COVID-19 has increased the food emergency for both communities in need and small farmers.
Currently, the market encompasses farmers from Gallardo's organic farm and Ponce Produce in Watsonville, a farming community in the Salinas Valley, as well as Castellanos Farms in Tulare County, which is more than a three-hour drive east of Palo Alto.
Fresh Approach is also preparing a mobile agricultural unit to tour the South Bay, an initiative that could see results later this month.
For more information about Fresh Aproach's initiatives and how to access food support programs for families and seniors, go to their site: https://www.freshapproach.org/
[With information from BCN]
