Tucson farmers markets: Helping the community and fighting food insecurity
As you enter a farmers market, your senses are immediately overwhelmed. One can smell fresh produce and coffee, hear the hum of people chatting and feel the warm sun beating down on you.
Farmers markets build a sense of community. They allow people to meet their neighbors and stock up on healthy and culturally significant foods.
My dad picked up groceries and bought his favorite coffee beans from his local market while my sister and I played on the playground and swung on the tire swing.
I loved those early mornings of playing with other children my age in the dirt and getting to walk around shops. I loved hanging out with kids my age who lived all around Vail and whom I could not see by simply attending elementary school. I feel content knowing that those experiences helped to fund the existence of markets, knowing that in some way that I made people’s lives better.
These markets work to bring people together for a fun weekend outing, but the people who support and work for these markets also combat food insecurity.
Food insecurity is a lack of access to healthy, fresh foods. Once you live more than a mile away from a grocery store, it is commonly referred to as living in a food desert. Many people who experience food insecurity also live in food deserts.
Statistics from the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona state that one in nine Arizonans face food insecurity. For children, it’s one in six.
The food bank works hand in hand with local farmers markets to create better outreach with people who require fresh produce and culturally significant foods.
Norma Cable, the public relations director of the food bank, brought up the work her group has done to work hand-in-hand with local farmers and neighborhood markets.
In Cable’s presentation, she explained that the food bank’s partners include the Santa Cruz River Farmers Market, which holds events weekly where people are encouraged to shop at the market. Various forms of money — Double-Up SNAP food stamps, EBT — are accepted. The food bank website lists this information as well as dates for when the markets take place.
Besides providing food to food insecure individuals, the Santa Cruz market offers other resources to alleviate food insecurity.
The market offers cooking lessons on how to prepare healthy meals with fresh produce, making cooking accessible and affordable. These classes help food-insecure individuals gain confidence and provide for their families.
Other programs around Tucson, such as the Heirloom Farmers Market, provide food to those struggling to find fresh produce, specifically targeting those who depend on SNAP food stamps and senior citizens who provide for themselves.
The Heirloom markets provide other resources besides produce and cultural foods. They provide homemade artisan goods, soaps, pots and other specialty items that people cannot find at a grocery store.
I grew up going to the Heirloom market in Rincon Valley, and I cannot emphasize enough how much I valued going there every weekend. If you are interested in finding markets near you, check out this website! Change the world and improve people’s lives, one market at a time.
