S1: It's time for Midday Edition on KPBS. Farmers markets play an important role in providing food access to communities across the region , so today we're visiting a few in honor of National Farmers Market Week. Here's to conversations that keep you informed , inspired , and make you think. We'll visit some vendors at Little Italy Farmers Market.
S2: I always tell my customers , this is my office and I always take this , my laptop or my car for flowers.
S1: Plus , we'll talk about the region's food landscape and how farmer's markets can better serve communities that need them the most. Then we'll stop by a community garden filling in that gap. That's ahead on Midday Edition. It's 945 on a Wednesday morning , and Date Street is already bustling with customers and vendors. Everyone's flocking out to the Little Italy Farmer's Market , recently named one of the top ten in the nation. The market sells fresh produce and a variety of other trinkets and goods. The goal ? Connecting the people directly to the food. The Midday Edition team went there last week to check it out. We met Mario Pascal , who works for Gilbert and Lee Farms in Fallbrook. On Wednesday and Saturdays , he sells flowers at the farmers market. He starts his morning by cutting stems off flowers. He got to the market around 6:30 a.m..
S2: We always try to be early because sometimes it's like some traffic on the freeway and we always try to be ahead.
S1: His setup includes a chopping block , buckets of flowers , rubber bands and an eye for the craft.
S2: I always tell my customers , this is my office and this is my laptop for my cutter for flowers.
S1: When asked about the process behind his craft , Pascal says the flowers hold a deeply personal meaning.
S2: My answer is easy. Uh , I lost my mom when I was a little kid , and I couldn't give any stamp to my mom. So for me to work with customers or anybody to come to our booth , I always do the best I can. We don't have so many kinds , but every step I make , I always try my best.
S1: A few booths down from Pascal Alberto Ibarra can be found chopping some fresh nectarines. Ibarra works for Kens top notch produce.
S3: The most popular has to be the mango nectarine. So that's a nectarine that is like a mango when it gets ripe and it's just delicious. It's one of the more , uh , I think , delicious fruits that we've had.
S1: He says they love the market because of the direct relationship with the customer.
S3: We used to have deals with , uh , certain companies , uh , so that they would sell in their stores and , you know , you would get much less of a margin profit because , you know , they wanted stuff at a cheaper rate , and we could only go as cheap as we could , you know , and , uh , here it's , it's we're able to sell at a price that works for us and the customer.
S1: Local residents. Sharon Jamba and her sister Oden came out to the farmer's market to get produce and bone broth from a local vendor.
S4: We live right here , so we just like to come down and check out what's new , take inventory of who's here , what's new. So we love it here.
S1: Local access to fresh produce was the entire reason the market started in the first place. Bridget Myers took over market operations in 2023. Her mom founded the market 16 years ago as a Little Italy resident.
S5: There's no grocery store in this neighborhood. The closest one is downtown , like in Gaslamp. So she went and knocked on some farmer's doors in Valley Center and asked them if they wanted to come , uh , you know , participate in a farmer's market in Little Italy. And they all thought she was nuts. And they came anyways and started this in 2008. So we've been here since 2008 , just started on Saturdays , started a block and a half long and now we're the largest farmers market in San Diego County.
S1: They've grown a lot over the years in both size and access. Meyer says. They process about 5 to $8000 worth of EBT each month.
S5: I think it's filling a really huge need. We always had a lot of EBT shoppers , but especially since Covid when everyone really needed that extra assistance , We brought a lot of new shoppers to the market , and then they were able to kind of build a habit of shopping at the market. So even if their assistance , if they didn't need it anymore , they were able to still like , they can't go buy grocery store strawberries after you've had a farmer's market. Strawberries. So they're still like loyal , loyal shoppers at the market. And they just learned how to , like , use those grocery bucks and make them stretch. And so it's been a really nice program to keep those shoppers coming back.
S1: And she says it hasn't always been easy maintaining the market.
S5: Covid was definitely the most extreme challenge that we faced as farmers market operators. We were shut down for one week , and then we're able to lobby with state and city officials to be designated as an essential business during that time. So we were able to reopen the following week in late March with only farms , and they all had to be very spread apart. The market had to be completely fenced in , and we had to have , um , entrances and exits to every block that were staffed and manned. So we had to count certain amount of shoppers coming in and exiting. Folks had to line up down the street in order to get in. So just a lot of patience was required.
S1: But through it all , the Little Italy market has remained an essential space in the community.
S5: There was a lot of silver linings that really brought us all together as a family , and it was nice that folks really felt that a connection to their local food stores became extremely important during that time. This is when people didn't want to go to grocery stores because it felt unsafe. They felt really removed from their like , food , where their food was coming from , and also supply chain issues and things like that. People couldn't get things and they realized you can get a lot of food right here at the farmer's market. It's always available because the farmer is half an hour away. So it really helped people connect with where their food comes from. And that was really helpful.
S1: And this isn't the only place where people find connection to their food in San Diego. Farmers markets are scattered across the region , but keeping those markets affordable and accessible is a constant struggle faced by market managers like miners and communities that rely on farmer's markets for produce. We'll talk about those challenges this hour. Still ahead , we'll talk about how farmer's markets have evolved over the years and whether or not they've moved away from their traditional purpose.
S6: Farmers markets have become an experience for many people , and they've changed in terms of who is selling. You can see that a lot of markets now have still a lot of certified vendors that sell produce , but there's also prepared foods and drinks here.
S1: More on that when KPBS Midday Edition returns. Welcome back to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. We just visited Little Italy Farmers Market , as you just heard in that previous segment , today's show is all about access to fresh produce in the San Diego region. So now let's speak with an expert who researches how farmers markets can increase access to healthy food. Joining me now is Pascal Josiah Marcel. Professor of geography at San Diego State University. She also directs the urban studies and food studies programs at Sdsu. Professor , thanks for joining me today.
S6: Thank you for having me.
S1: Glad to have you on. So to start off , can you give us a general sense of how farmers markets first grew in popularity ? Yes.
S6: Farmers markets really emerged in the 1970s , um , and grew in popularity tremendously in the last ten , 20 years. Um , in San Diego in 2010 , there were about 27 farmers markets. And in the ten years after that , it grew to almost well. There were 83 farmers market in 2018 , so it grew tremendously. And Covid really hurt a lot of markets. So today we don't have as many farmers market as we used to have. According to the San Diego Farm Bureau , there are 36 farmers market operating in the county at the moment.
S1: Yeah , well , in farmers markets , I have so much to offer and talk about why someone would choose the farmer's market over a grocery store. Sure.
S6: Sure. I mean , one of the reasons that Farmers Market expanded is because people really wanted to have access to fresh , healthy produce in the communities. And so farmers markets are really important in that way. They really connect consumers to producers. In order to sell at a certified farmer's market , you have to be a certified producer. So you come in and you're bringing your produce to the market so consumers can interact directly with farmers and learn about where the produce come from , how it's grown. They get fresh , seasonal produce. And so it's a wonderful thing for consumers.
S1: That's good. Well , how have they changed over over the years ? How have they evolved ? Well.
S6: I think a lot of people who started farmers markets were often under the , you know , motivated by the idea of increasing access to fresh and healthy food in low income communities that did not necessarily have a large supermarkets and easy access to affordable and healthy food. And they are a number of farmers markets that serve that purpose. But they are also a lot of farmers markets that serve very different customer base and in reality , a lot of farmers markets tend to be located in more affluent communities , serving again , more affluent people , tourists and people who are not necessarily struggling to put fresh produce on the table , but that go to a farmer's market for an experience. And so farmer's markets have become an experience for many people , and they've changed in terms of who is selling. You can see that a lot of markets now have still a lot of certified vendors that sell produce , but there's also prepared foods and drinks and other goods that are not food related. And then this music and there's all kinds of wonderful things , of course , that make it an experience. But that has moved away from perhaps the idea that a lot of grassroot organizers who were trying to set up farmers markets had in mind early on. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Well , you did some research back in 2014 on San Diego's food scape and the economic , political , cultural and emotional relationship between food and place. What did you learn about these relationships ? Yeah.
S6: So this is something that I've been working on for many years , trying to understand San Diego's food scape and in better ways. And farmers markets are an important part of our food scape. And one of the things that I discovered with some of my colleagues and graduate students is that farmers markets sometimes can play a detrimental role in promoting gentrification , and I want to make it very clear that I'm not saying that farmers markets are bad , farmer's markets are wonderful , and there's all kinds of benefits , um , that we can talk about and that we've already mentioned. But a lot of time when they move into communities that with the idea of serving low income people in these areas , they also become attractive to other people. Right. And so there's a lot of people who go visit an area because there's now a new farmer's market there , and that might change the landscape of that area for a very good reason. Of course , we want everybody to have access to fresh , healthy produce. That's a wonderful thing. But when the community changes so much that it becomes unaffordable for residents , or that the farmers market itself changes and bring in fancier products and more expensive prepared food , then it no longer serves the population that it intended to serve in the first place. And so food is really playing a very important role in branding communities and giving them an image in making them attractive to outsiders and not necessarily just serving residents. We can see a lot of instances where food is becoming a very important aspect of transforming communities , not for the people who live there , but for outsiders. And that could be detrimental. So that is something that we have noted in certain communities in San Diego. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. So it sounds like the communities who could benefit from farmers markets the most maybe don't have access. And when they do , there goes the neighborhood. Mhm.
S6: I mean , one of the issues also with farmers markets is that of course you want to pay the farmers. And that's one of the great benefit of farmers markets , is that it removes some of the middlemen. And so there's a direct connection between the consumers and the producers , which is a wonderful thing. But there's also the perception that fresh , organic , locally grown produce might be more expensive. And so these people who might be hesitant to go shop at the farmer's market because they don't think they're going to get the good deals , they don't think they're going to be able to use coupons and things like that. And so they sometimes don't even go to the farmer's market. And the truth of the matter is that there are a number of farmers market who are , that are subsidized , where people can use Cal Fresh , where they can use EBT to purchase food at a very affordable price. But people don't necessarily know about this. And even with that , sometimes it's still a challenge for some people. And there's been sort of a number of programs in place to try to actually subsidize that even more. So , for example , in California we have a program called Market Match , which allows people who shop at a farmer's market with EBT to receive a match up to $10 , where they can purchase additional produce , which is a wonderful program that makes it affordable to more people. But this program is often under threat. So , for example , with the California budget in January , the governor announced that we were potentially going to slash this program because they needed to make budget cuts , and luckily it seems like the program is going to stay. It seems like the legislators saw it as something important , and a lot of advocates advocated for the program. And so it looks like the program is staying. But these kinds of things are always under threat. And farmers markets managers who are trying to reach a low income population are always struggling and working , trying to get grants , trying to get additional funding to subsidize it and to continue to make it affordable to the people who need it the most. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Well , I want to bring this back to the communities and neighborhoods right here in San Diego. Earlier , you mentioned that when sometimes when farmers markets pop up , so does gentrification. Where have you seen that happen in San Diego ? Yeah.
S6: So in in my work in San Diego , this is work that was done about a decade ago. So that landscape has changed a lot since then already. This is something that changes so fast. But at the time , what we , some of the farmers market that we were looking at were in North Park , in City Heights , um , even in southeastern San Diego. Um , they were a number of areas where farmers markets where sometimes coming in to draw attention to that area and then closing a couple of months later or a year later once the area had begun to draw some attention. And so , um , these , these farmers markets in , in some of the lower income communities of San Diego were kind of a mixed bag. Again , I'm not saying that they were bad. They were playing a really important role in the community. But at the same time , some of perhaps what we could call unintended consequences , where that these farmers markets , along with other , uh , you know , changes in the food scape where attracting a different clientele and different people. So some of these markets were turning more into kind of festivals and , uh , street food fairs , more of an experience than something that is about providing affordable , healthy , fresh , locally grown , sustainable food to low income people. Um , and so we noticed that in a lot of communities that are kind of the lower income communities of color , um , around the downtown area. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Well , I mean , in some areas , as you alluded to , are categorized as food deserts , like southeastern San Diego and Logan Heights.
S6: Uh , some of these markets have struggled. So for example , the City Heights farmers markets , as far as I know , hasn't reopened. It closed , I think , in 2022 around the pandemic , and I don't think it has reopened. That was a fairly successful market , um , in southeastern San Diego , there has been a few farmers markets that have opened in different places and , uh , closed. Uh , now the wonderful thing that's happening in southeastern San Diego is that there is a mobile farmers market , which is kind of a new way of doing it , and it's a truck that's going to different locations throughout the greater Southeast and San Diego on different days of the week , and improving again , bringing fresh produce locally grown by very small farmers to to these areas that are many of them are described as food deserts and have limited access to supermarkets and particularly locally grown fruit food.
S1: And will actually hear from the folks who run that truck later this hour. But I want to ask you more about food deserts , also known as food apartheid.
S6: And so it is a structural problem. It is related to , you know , why do we decide to invest in some communities and not others ? And a lot of that is influenced by decisions such as planning decisions , zoning regulations , uh , policy decisions in terms of incentives and tax breaks and things like that , and then investors decisions , of course. And so things like redlining , for example , that demarcated certain communities as risky for investment , also had an influence on the retail sector. It's not just the housing sector , it's the retail sectors as well. So these communities did not receive the same kind of investment in terms of food retail than , uh , wealthier , more affluent communities that were not designated like that. So it's something that happened really over time , over an extended period of time. Some people actually prefer to use the term food apartheid instead of food desert. And the notion of food apartheid really emphasized the fact that it's a policy decision. right ? It didn't happen just by accident. It happened because there were specific decisions that separated or that distinguished sort of the , quote unquote , valuable communities that were worthy of investment and the other communities that were too risky and that people should hesitate to invest in. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Yeah. I mean , and , you know , when you call it , when we call it a food desert , it makes it seem like it's just a natural occurrence , you know , like , oops , there's no food in this area when really it is a decision. Yes.
S6: Yes. And I think another issue was a food desert is also that is also problematic is the idea that it's a desert. Right. And the desert for many people it implies that there's nothing and it's actually not true. They are things in these communities , like in City Heights and southeastern San Diego. There are a lot of small markets in city height. There are plenty of small ethnic markets and grocers and corner stores , and some of these markets are wonderful. Some of these are not as good. They may not have any fresh produce , and maybe they are more like liquor stores and they charge high prices. But some of these other markets are also very good. And in our research we documented that. And so when we label a community as a food desert , then it also makes people think that that is a food desert , or it makes policymakers think that the only thing we need to bring there is a supermarket. But that's not true. That's not the only solution. Solutions could be working with those small , you know , food stores and try to provide assistance or bringing a kind of farmer's market that is accessible and affordable to low income people or working with community gardens. There's a lot of solutions that are out there and that we can use , but when we label something a dessert , it's sort of suggesting that it's empty and there's nothing there , and that's really not the case.
S1: Yeah , well , you mentioned community gardens. And so I'm curious what role do you think they have in these communities. And not only what role do they have ? What are some of the challenges to operating a community garden ? Some areas may be exposed to more pollution than others. It may be challenging to to grow produce there. So talk to me a bit about that.
S6: Yeah , I'm glad you're asking that. That's actually a project that I'm working on at the moment. Uh , looking at some of the challenges that growers face when they want to set up urban gardens. And so I think the biggest challenge is land and access to land. It's really , really difficult for growers to find land. And we have policies in place to try to create an incentive for land owners to , you know , make their property available for growers and get a tax break. If they do that , it's not working very well because landowners don't really know how to do that or they don't want to do that. They want to hold on to their land and , you know , sell it when it becomes profitable. It's just very , very challenging for growers to find land. And then if they find land , sometimes the land is contaminated. And so it's these issues there in terms of being able to grow food there. And it often requires a lot of expenses in terms of , you know , setting up raised beds , maybe importing land , bringing land from somewhere else , or building the soil , which takes many years , composting and doing all these things that make the garden safe for food production and so obtaining access to land and then making sure that the land is not contaminated and clean is really a big challenge that a lot of growers are facing. And I know a lot of people who would love to grow food in San Diego at the moment and are just struggling finding land. They can also rent land , but sometimes the rent is so expensive because the real estate market in San Diego and the land market is just so overheated. So it's really one of the biggest challenge , I would say. Wow.
S1: Wow. I think that kind of emphasizes the importance of farmers markets. But , you know , they look a lot different today with things like gourmet food and $10 smoothies.
S6: And if we really support farmers markets to make sure that they really farmers markets , not just food markets , right ? It's for it's about farmers and it's about customers , obviously. But it's it's a way for farmers to connect directly with customers. And we should make sure that it stays that way and that it continues to support local farmers , small farmers that are involved in , you know , sustainable agriculture , regenerative farming , all the good things that are really important for climate. So we want all of this good food to be produced here in our region. So we want to support the farmers , and we also want to make sure that all of this wonderful food is accessible to all San Diegans , not just wealthy San Diegans. And so a farmers market can definitely play that role. But we need to be aware of this , of the limitations , and we need to work towards making them more equitable.
S1: I've been speaking with Professor Pascal Joao Marcel , a professor of geography at San Diego State University. She also directs the urban studies and food studies programs at Sdsu. Professor , thank you so much for joining us.
S6: Thank you.
S1: Coming up , how one market is striving for environmental justice so communities can grow their own food.
S7: Everything that we do has to embrace environmental change so that we can get the best , because the people that we feed ourselves , we feed the neighbors.
S1: KPBS Midday Edition returns after the break. Welcome back to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. We just heard from a food studies professor about challenges faced by farmers markets and communities daily. But many markets and community groups are working to embody solutions. One of them is the People's Produce Mobile Farmers market , run by the nonprofit Project New Village. Their mission is to build stronger neighborhoods in southeastern San Diego through food and community health. Midday Edition's Elaine Alfaro visited the truck at Mount Hope Community Garden last week to check it out.
S8: Hey man , it's a typical Wednesday at Mount Hope Community Garden. They've got it all collard greens , tomatoes and sunflowers.
S9: I'm told that they kind of once they get planted , they're going to grow wherever the heck they want to grow.
S8: Garden caregiver Danny Kapur gives KPBS a tour through the garden.
S9: We do a lot of composting here. Uh , and it's a big process. Like , there's a lot we still need to do with it. Like all of this is going to go into here and start the process of , uh , you know , becoming compost. Okay.
S8: At the front of the market , Rodney West helps customers check out their produce. He's the mobile farmers market manager.
S10: Pretty much in charge of the truck , the ordering , the inventory , building relationships with the farmers.
S8: He's also an expert gardener , and he's been at this a long time.
S10: Our mission is to build healthy , stronger neighborhoods And we're trying to , you know , address all the a lot of the health disparities in the community. So what we find is that what we're doing is bringing quality , uh , quality organic produce , if you will , uh , to , to the community and where people have access to it. So , so they don't necessarily come to you , but you kind of take it to them. So we we have schedule markets every week. And then we also have uh certain pop ups , particularly on the weekends where we go to. But we like to also participate in a lot of the , the community venues so people know more about what we do.
S8: Diane Moss is a founder and the managing director for Project New Village. She was there at the community garden on Wednesday leading a meeting in the shade. I joined her at the table to learn how the community garden got started.
S7: So we were a nonprofit in 2010 , and we became a nonprofit so we could address the issue of food insecurity. When we talk to our community about what are the conditions that they wanted to look at , two things rose to the surface a community garden and and a farmer's market. So it came from community that we started doing this work around food insecurity in the way that we do it.
S8: So you guys started out as a nonprofit in 2010.
S7: Our basis is an advocacy or community organizing group. So we initially had to go up to city council or two city council to change the city ordinance , because we didn't want to pay a lot of money for public space. This was a public space at that time. And in 2010 , we went before city council with a lot of our allies in the movement , and we challenged the ordinances that exist. They unanimously voted in our favor. So we were able to use this land for five years , and in five years , a sign went up on the property that said it was for sale. So we went back to our roots of being an advocacy organization , and we bid against the other infill developers , and we won. And once we won , then you had to raise the money. So we had a very ambitious campaign , and we raised the money so that we could then own this property. It was a big it took a few years to do that , and there were some people that came in and helped us do that with loans. But we've paid off all the loans. And currently today as we sit here , we're the owners of this property and we're growing food. Not only that , so that we could sell it on the truck , but we have events and we give it to folks in the neighborhoods. Right.
S8: Right. You know , you mentioned this advocacy part of your work , project New Village , is also about environmental justice and social justice.
S7: Soil is outside , so there are elements of the earth that we have to take care of in order to take care of the food , the soil , the air , the water that we use. And we don't use any pesticides and things like that. So everything that we do has to embrace environmental change so that we can get the best. Because the people that we feed ourselves , we feed the neighbors. Our total focus is having impact in southeastern San Diego.
S8: Well , you spoke about , you know , this is for the community. What are some challenges the surrounding community faces in seeking , you know , fresh produce ? You know , beyond the garden.
S7: We have smaller mom and pop stores , Certainly not a lot of access to what people call organic food. So part of what it is that we struggle with is making sure that food is available. That's fairly priced. We don't say it's going to be an expensive but fairly priced food and good quality food. Right. So what we've started is we have a network of growing spaces , people's backyards , community spaces where we grow the food. About 25% of what we grow on the truck , what we what's on the truck is what we grow here in the neighborhood. We're proud to say that.
S8: Well , I've heard about that growers collective that contributes to the market and garden. Tell me about that group and how they support the market.
S7: So right now there's maybe about 12 people that are growing food that we buy from and and sort on the truck. Rodney , his background , he's a farmer. He's a certified uh , he's a master gardener and he's our person that goes and visits the homes to make sure that they're growing at a standard that we would like. And then they bring the food here. And their generosity sometimes is they won't sell it to us. They give us the food so we can then make it available in the community. So two ways that we try to make things more available to the community here. We found in the work that we do , we do need to have subsidies. So we now make our own subsidies , call our community Chest , where we invite others to help people with their purchasing power at the farmers market by making a contribution. We say everyone that lives here is not poor.
S8:
S7: I have no problem with food banks , but we want to be able to have a lifestyle that supports healthy every day of the week. So that wouldn't be a food bank type situation. It would be a situation where you can bring in food and make it accessible to the people that you want to sell the food to. Uh , we can sustain a market where people can pay and pay for the produce that's brought in , and we substitute or subsidize that when we can. But we want this to be sustainable , not something that comes and goes based on a grant or somebody's generosity.
S8: You know , there's a variety of weekly markets across San Diego , in la mesa , Ocean Beach , Little Italy , where we were out a little bit earlier today.
S7: Everybody doesn't have a car. One of the major barriers to access to healthy food is transportation. So we have a mobile truck so that we can go to various spots within the community and make it really accessible to people who live here.
S8: So with this garden , you know , it's located right where people live. And a team helps create all of this.
S7: Right ? I understand that we live in San Diego. It's a tourist town , so you can go anywhere you want to get different things. But anytime you make a purchase from us , it's supporting community because everything we do is here. We're going to fuel the truck here , we're going to get coffees made here. So we're going to take dollars and we're going to spend those dollars in community. And it's really helping with the wealth , maintaining wealth in our neighborhoods. And people have to see that. You have to know that so that with your purchasing power , it's a kind of a conscious thing that you're doing. Right.
S8: Right. You know , you mentioned the truck. It goes to different locations throughout the week , right ? Um , tell me kind of how you choose where the truck can go in the community.
S7: So one , we have to have permission from the landowner where we can go. Uh , we want to go where there's some foot traffic. And in most of the locations , we have partner agencies that we work with. So in Lemon Grove , there's a lemon grove , uh , community garden. So we take our farmer's market right there to the garden once a week.
S8: I wanted to ask this one. You know , you said earlier that farmers markets historically have not been accessible if you unless you have a car or some means of transportation. Right.
S7: It's a working class community. You miss a lot of people. If you have a market one day a week for three hours , it has to be when it's available to people. So it's more convenient if we can go different spots at different times a day. One of the markets we have is at nine in the morning , but it's at the community college district , the SEC campus here , and that works really well. We now have a marketed Morse High School. It's at the end of the day and they have a culinary program and we work with the students. It's amazing to see these high school students be the consumers of and they're paying. They have their coupons and they know what they want and they're taking food home to their families. We love it.
S8: That's beautiful. You had mentioned those coupons. Um , and I think a community chest.
S7: Last year we did we didn't have coupons for one month at one of our sites , sales went down to zero. So initially the funding for the coupons came from grants , right ? Grants have a duration when the grants ran out. We still had a need for the subsidies , so we launched the Community Chest last month , June 2024 , to ask our community members. We figured people that would support Little League. You could see that food is essential and better food is better quality of life. So we're asking your everyday person to help us support our neighbors. Buy good food as simple. That way we don't take any money. If you give $10 , $10 goes exactly to the person that fills out a survey. And with that survey , then they get a coupon so that they can shop. The survey has to do with their their nutrition ideals and their shopping patterns. The survey is done with students that come from San Diego State in the nutrition education class , and they've been doing that for a couple of years , and it works out really well. We do see that people use the coupons. You know , we don't know why more people don't use their EBT cards to support their shopping at the at the farmer's market. I'm thinking that perhaps they're saving it for some other experience. If they can get a coupon for $10 , you use that and then use your EBT somewhere else. So we're trying to figure out a way where we can really say we welcome and appreciate. Use your EBT if you like. We're going to we'll figure it out. Gotcha.
S8: Gotcha. Yeah.
S7: I think we need to take down any barriers from people growing food and selling it directly to the people who eat the food. It doesn't make sense to me that we live in San Diego and I eat oranges from Florida. I don't get it right , but we have oranges here , so I would put more support around growing local.
S8: As a second part of your work. You know , it's not just the garden , but it's also the market.
S7: You know , you get a chance to know what's local and what's in season. You know , I might want watermelon in December , but that's not happening. If it does , something strange is going on , right ? So you get a chance to know your people who are growing the food. And in this day and time , that's kind of important to know who's growing your food.
S8:
S7: We want our own neighborhood market. We are in the front of developing a food hub. We're calling it The Village. This garden will be smaller scale , but we will have a neighborhood grocery store selling neighborhood products. It will be a place where people who are selling healthier food , eatery folks , some stalls for them. There will be a kitchen , commercial kitchen because we know some of our neighbors don't cook and we want to share with them the pleasure of cooking and outdoor space where we can have gatherings and celebrate food. Clearly do some composting , recycling of food , and upstairs we'd be looking for a tenant that shares our values that brings some other value to our neighborhoods. So a lot of exciting things on the horizon.
S8: Before leaving the garden for the day , I also caught up with Anthony Avalos. He's in charge of community engagement for the Community Rising project at Project New Village.
S11: Community rising is an attempt to for Project New Village to really come out to all of the different , smaller communities that make up San Diego. It is letting people know we're here. We are here to help heal. And if healing is something that is in your agenda , then maybe we could possibly do that together.
S8: For Avalos , the garden represents something he didn't have growing up.
S11: I grew up off of 45th the market a couple blocks from here , and I remember walking past the slot every day as a kid , and it was just a dirt lot. Uh , so to see it now , um , represent community healing , representing a safe space for community to to come and enjoy each other's time and company. Um , so , I mean , look , people just walking by and they can't help but say , good morning. This is this is what the garden provides.
S8: As far as what needs to happen to increase healthy food access in communities like this one. This is what Avalos has to say.
S11: We need to accomplish the goal of helping people understand the value of eating clean , of eating healthy. I know that it's not something that we have created this idea , but if we want people to understand how important food sovereignty is , we have to make sure that they understand that currently , as Americans , we have a really bad relationship with food. And so we never can get to that end point of liberation if we don't at least start with this uncomfortable truth that what is convenient to eat is not healthy for us at all , and we must change that pathway. So I think that would be first , is that building that awareness and us being successful in building that awareness.
S8: And lastly , Avalos shares what the garden has taught him.
S11: One of the most important things that the garden has taught me is that there's actually a chemical exchange that happens between the human body and soil. That everything that's happening under our feet , um , is something that our body up takes and that has an actual impact on our health. And that impact is a wonderful one. The other thing that this garden has taught me is that almost everything that we are doing right now , in order to survive , in order to move from survival to thriving , there's been an iteration of that before and working with elders from the community who have been putting in this work for decades is so humbling because it's like , oh yeah , my my new idea that I thought was going to rock the world. They've done that for 30 years already , and I need to just calm down and pick up a shovel.
S1: That was Midday Edition's Elaine Alfaro at Mount Hope Community Garden project. New village operates their mobile market at eight different locations throughout the week. You can find more information on our website pbs.org. That's our show for today. If you missed anything , you can download KPBS Midday Edition on all podcast apps. Don't forget to watch KPBS Evening Edition tonight at five for in-depth reporting on San Diego issues. I'm Jade Hindman. Thanks for listening.
