Del Paso Heights Community Farmers Market

Where: Robertson Community Center, 3525 Norwood Ave.
When: July 10, 2010 - October, Every Saturday, 7:30 am to 12 noon

The Del Paso Heights Community Certified Farmers Market provides a much-needed source of locally grown fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers to residents of Del Paso Heights and surrounding communities. A majority of the farmers selling at the market are an ethnically diverse group of immigrant farmers who grow on plots of land located within the community, leading to incredibly fresh, healthy and culturally appropriate produce choices. In addition to produce, the market has weekly cooking demonstrations, live music and entertainment, youth focused activities and crafts and a monthly kids-cooking class led by a local professional chef. Customers are able to use cash, WIC FMNP checks (With Infant Children, Farmers Market Nutrition Program), SFMNP checks (Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program) and EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer) to make purchases at the market. Currently, the only certified farmers' markets in Sacramento County that allow food stamp recipients to use their EBT card to purchase fresh produce are this market and the Oak Park farmers' market.

Mission of the Market

• Improve the availability of affordable, locally grown, nutritious food for Del Paso Heights, Strawberry Manor and surrounding communities.
• Provide an effective sales outlet for local neighborhood growers.
• Educate community residents about direct relationship between healthy diets and lifestyles and personal wellness.

History and background
In 2005, Soil Born Farms and the Health Education Council convened key community representatives with the goal of developing a plan of action that responded to the lack of access to healthy foods by low-income residents living in Sacramento County. The result was the FEED (Food Education Equity and Diversity) Coalition, which supports existing and develops new community based food security projects. Initial work of the Coalition was focused in Del Paso Heights.

Like many other low-income communities throughout the nation, Del Paso Heights/Strawberry Manor also has been affected by the nationwide supermarket consolidation. Today there is no large competitively priced retail market in the area. Compounding the problem is that many residents do not own cars and are forced to rely on independently owned neighborhood stores for day-to-day items. These stores can be far more expensive and tend to lack fresh quality produce.

This core fresh food access issue prompted the FEED Coalition to set up its first FEED farmers market in Sacramento within the community of Del Paso Heights. The Del Paso Heights Community Farmers Market was created as a model to address three pressing and unmet food security needs for the Sacramento area. These include:

• A lack of access to viable marketing opportunities for smaller ethnically diverse farmers in the Sacramento area.
• A lack of access to locally grown healthy and fresh fruit and vegetables for residents in Sacramento’s low-income neighborhoods.
• A lack of education among low-income residents about the nutritional and cost-savings benefits that buying fresh locally grown produce has for one’s health.

Over the years, we have seen increasing growth in terms of market attendance, grower sales, WIC and SFMNP coupons and EBT usage, vendor diversity, entertainment and youth focused market activities.

As of the 2010 season, the market is managed by the Mutual Assistance Network of Del Paso Heights and the growers who sell at the market.