CitySeed: Design Brigade Week 4
Overview
This week, we presented our research from the past four weeks in a mid-point review with our clients at CitySeed. In addition, we paid a visit to Massaro Community Farm, one of the vendors at CitySeed’s markets. Using what we observed from the farm visit as well as everything we’ve learned in weeks prior, we are now focusing our efforts into creating both short and long term designs for a more equitable market.
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Mid-point Review
Most of the week was spent preparing our research to be presented in the mid-point review. This work included consolidating our drawings and graphics to construct a narrative of CitySeed’s place in New Haven’s current food system, as well as introducing precedents for a more inclusive space. At the end of the week, we presented this work to Cortney, Ashley, and Erin from CitySeed. The presentation gave us an opportunity to reflect on everything we had accomplished during the first half of our project; we feel that by conducting thorough research through community surveys and interviews with stakeholders, we have gained an understanding that will allow us to envision a better farmers’ market for everyone.
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Visit to Massaro Farm
On Thursday, we were able to visit Massaro Community Farm for a tour that they offered as part of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas. After a short drive to Woodbridge, we found ourselves surrounded by green fields, chicken coops, and a two-story red barn that looked like it had come straight from a storybook. We passed by plants arranged neatly into rows, chicken coops protected by an electric fence, long translucent greenhouses, and stacked boxes of beehives. Colorful signs with text explaining the farm’s operations were interspersed throughout.
Massaro Farm hosts several educational programs alongside selling produce through their market booth and CSA. Our guide Katie emphasized the importance of understanding that unlike shopping from the year-round diversity of options at most grocery chains, buying local means being in tune with which crops are in season and the connection that this has to our own seasonal dietary needs. Buying produce from local farmers not only gives consumers access to more nutritious food, but also the opportunity to try new vegetables and expand their tastes throughout the year.
As we ended the tour with samples of strawberries, farm-made salsa, and lemonade with fresh mint, we shifted our conversation to the farmers’ market. Katie described the difficulty of making sure the market booths were well-staffed and keeping up with changing technology, but emphasized the importance of the community aspect that the market provides. While Massaro has built up enough of a following to not have to depend on the market for revenue, it can be hard for new vendors and smaller farms to get into the market and make a profit.
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Next Steps
The mid-point review gave us a great opportunity to get feedback from our clients at CitySeed. Talking to Cortney, Ashley, and Erin reaffirmed the importance of aligning our future designs with the main priorities of CitySeed: raising awareness around food justice issues and building community. A visionary design for the market is not only one that serves the needs of the customers and vendors; it also acts as a vibrant community gathering place where everyone can feel welcome and heard.
Transitioning from research to design, we have decided to divide our work into short-term and long-term solutions. Accordingly, we plan to split into two teams: one focusing on designs that are immediately implementable in the existing markets and the other envisioning a market design for a future permanent space. We will also be meeting with Angela McKee, Executive Director of Edible Schoolyard; Curt Ellis, CEO of FoodCorps; and Ivan Rodriguez with Student Nutrition Services of the San Francisco Unified School District to have a conversation about food justice in New Haven and to review our preliminary designs.
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Additional Resources
