Collective Roots Delivers Farmers' Market Produce to those who need it in East Palo Alto

Many of you are probably aware that Collective Roots helped lead a collaborative effort to establish the East Palo Alto Community Farmers' Market this last June. The market has now served over 5,000 customers, providing a new source of fresh fruits and vegetables in a community long overdue for such a resource. What you may not know is that thanks to generous supporters of Collective Roots, we have been distributing fresh produce each week to the East Palo Alto Senior Center, the Ecumenical Hunger Program, and other local agencies serving people who are hungry, homeless, or on low / fixed incomes.

Since June 1, 2008, the East Palo Alto Community Farmers' Market has brought fresh and healthy produce into the community. On Sunday afternoons, shoppers in East Palo Alto choose from a variety of nutritious fruits and vegetables from local family farmers, all while getting to know their neighbors-similar to other markets across the country.

But after the market closes, as local families walk away with bags full of healthy food, Collective Roots does something different: we buy fruits and vegetables from our family farmers, and donate them to organizations in the East Palo Alto Community. (See photo of the the Pa Vang Family Farmers to your right.) These donations of fresh and healthy produce serve three main purposes:

• sustain the operations of the market;
• support the family farmers; and, most importantly,
• provide healthy foods to families who without assistance may not be able to purchase it themselves.

On a recent Sunday, several hundred dollars worth of apples, peaches, squash and other healthy items were distributed in the community at no cost to those receiving the food. A variety of organizations have benefitted, including the Ecumenical Hunger Program and the East Palo Alto Senior Center, with plans to spread the donations to even more groups in the coming weeks.

This effort has helped to insure that the small farmers who participate in the market are assured adequate sales during our start-up period, and have helped to spread good will among some of the neediest residents in the city (and the organizations that serve them). Recently, Wolfram Alderson, Executive Director of Collective Roots, stopped by the EPA Senior Center to visit with Millicent ("Millie") Grant, Director of the Center, to hear first hand how the EPA-CFM  has benefitted Seniors in the community. Millie Grant can be found at the Senior Center nearly every day of the week, often in the kitchen, preparing food for the hundreds of Seniors who attend their programs.

Walking in the door of the Senior Center, one quickly how important the Center is to Seniors living in the city. Millie is usually too busy to stop for long, let alone sit down to chat, so she quickly introduced Wolfram to Ola Augmon, a Senior Citizen and a treasured leader at the Center. Ola serves as a Senior Advisor to the City of East Palo Alto and has lived in East Palo Alto since the 1960s. Ola was pleased to share her own perspective about food access in the City of East Palo Alto:

"I can't even remember when we last had a major source of fresh fruits and vegetables in the city-it was some time in the 1970s. It is especially hard for East Palo Alto Seniors to acquire freshly grown food. We typically have to travel to Foods Co in Redwood City or Safeway in Palo Alto (approximately 5 miles away). Transportation is a real challenge because most Seniors don't drive. It makes me very sad that our community has had to suffer so long from a lack for healthy food. I was born and raised on a farm and grew up on food raised by my family. My parents once had a garden here in East Palo Alto on University Drive, and I still grow my own collard greens, tomatoes, and peppers. Because of my current disability, I now grow in containers in my front porch. We are so grateful for the fruits and vegetables that have been donated by Collective Roots and the East Palo Alto Community Farmers' Market for bringing this food to our table."

Farmers' markets are among the leading strategies being utilized for combating hunger and malnutrition in the U.S. East Palo Alto is currently experiencing an increase of homelessness, and hunger and malnutrition plague the working poor and residents on fixed incomes in the city. Please consider supporting the work of Collective Roots while we are taking important steps to improving the food system in East Palo Alto.

This important service cannot continue, however, without the support of generous donors. As the market season continues, the ability of Collective Roots to continue to provide healthy food to our neediest community members in East Palo Alto will be possible only if additional funds can be raised.

If you want to become a supporter of the East Palo Alto Community Farmers' Market, and help provide healthy foods to those in need, please consider donating to this important project.

Nearly 40% of our budget is contributed in-kind. This means that every dollar you give is matched with the generosity of others that stretches precious resources even further. We offer a variety of ways for donors to make a contribution. We can mail you a letter (the old-fashioned way) with a remit envelope, or you can simply click here to make a tax-deductible donation online. Our online donation form is easy to use and only takes a couple of minutes. You may designate that your contribution serve the specific purpose of supporting the EPA Community Farmers' Market.

Please use the "donate now" button on the left hand side of this page, or you may click here. On the Donate Now page where it refers to "Focused Giving," you may select "Farmers' Market in EPA" and we will designate your donation for this specific purpose.