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Grant Provides Free Produce For Mobile Market

Matt Smith, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church parishoner, helps bring in 1,000 pounds of produce that was donated to St. Luke’s Episcopal Church on Monday as part of a federal grant to be provided free of charge for the Mobile Market on Wednesday. Submitted photo

It’s not every day that a 1,000-pound shipment of produce arrives at your doorstep.

Volunteers from St. Luke’s Episcopal Church unloaded 50 boxes of 20 pounds worth of fresh produce from James Desiderio Inc., Buffalo-based wholesale company, on Monday. The shipment was received thanks to a federal grant through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. James Desiderio Inc. will also deliver another 1,000 pounds to First Presbyterian Church which will provide boxes of food to families who participate in their A Children’s Place program.

“This program was put together to make sure that distributors could buy produce from farmers so as to make sure that the produce was not thrown away,” said the Rev. Luke Fodor, church pastor. “We’ve seen throughout this pandemic the farmers that have had to waste so much of their cattle or milk being dumped. … At that moment, the government intervened to say, we need to, pardon the pun, the farmers’ bacon.”

The grant pays local wholesalers to provide free food to non-profits. Once St. Luke’s, which will begin its first season serving as the fiduciary sponsor of the Jamestown Public Market, which also operates the Mobile Market, qualified, Fodor and manager Linnea Carlson began making arrangements with the closest local wholesaler.

“It was really cool and exciting to see and see that the federal government was investing in this program,” Carlson said. “The government set aside $1 billion in programs connecting to distributors throughout the country to local US-based farms. So many were forced to throw this food out because they were losing the business, so it was neat to see the government intervene and think quickly about how they could help US citizens that were hungry.”

Aidan Fodor wheels in boxes of produce that St. Luke’s Episcopal Church received as a result of a federal grant. The produce will be available free of charge at the Mobile Market Wednesday. Submitted photo

The grant program also allows the government to see firsthand the disparities that do exist in food systems, Carlson and Fodor said.

“From our perspective, it also helps us try to raise awareness for the whole food system,” Fodor said.

“We have a robust food system in this country and yet we waste so much of that food,” Carlson said. “The pandemic demonstrated the flaws in that food system This is cool because it intervenes and connects wholesalers and communities directly to the consumer.”

A food system, Carlson explained, is the path that food travels along in getting from farm-to-table.

“Every community has one whether it’s sustainable or otherwise and it varies from community to community,” Carlson said. “It’s everything from farmers to wholesale distributors and from them to our Public Market or grocery stores and also includes food pantries and compost programs, as well as the landfill, make the final part of the system because we hope food is composted so that it eventually becomes dirt in which you’re able to grow more food. It’s cyclical.”

Carlson said the flaws that were exposed went beyond usual food insecurity, rather usual participants in the food system were having a hard time finding food.

“Bakers had a hard time getting flower because all of those resources were all being packaged for commercial usage,” she said. “Meat was a big thing and those meat shelves were bare. It’s gotten a lot more people interested in how can we buy locally, support locally. That meat isn’t being shipped across the world.”

Last year, the Chautauqua County Legislature helped establish a food policy council — an advisory board consisting of different participants of the local food system to come together to address related issues in the community. Farmers, wholesalers, representatives from food pantries and soup kitchens, as well as stakeholders, sit on the board, including Carlson.

“It’s just great to see our community come together to address this need,” she said. “Other cities have a robust one and it’s great to see that exist in Jamestown and our county.”

Additionally, the Jamestown City Council passed a resolution during a special meeting on Monday that helped to codify the Public and Mobile markets.

“We work hand-in-hand with the city and they’ve helped to take a public resource into a public entity,” Fodor said. “Last night, they unanimously approved a new chapter in the city code that specifically addresses the Public and Mobile market program. It’s just really neat to see the city council come and support these programs. It’s been great to be here at St. Luke’s with partners, volunteers, and supporters who are just as passionate about these programs and this importance.”

The produce being provided at this week’s Mobile Market is mostly of local and seasonal growing: rhubarbs, strawberries and various greens. It will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis for free.

The Mobile Market, which started operation last week, will make several stops Wednesday: Silver Tree Seniors on Crane Street from 10 to 11 a.m., Silver Tree Seniors on North Main Street from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., The Chautauqua Center on Institue Street from 1-2 p.m. and the parking lot on Falconer and Curtis across from Jamestown Community College from 2:30-3:30 p.m.

“Last year, we averaged about 40 customers per stop,” Carlson said. “It takes a few weeks to reach that point and the word gets out that we opened again. We like to say that our hope is that we have no customers and the hope is that people are not in need and not food insecure. The majority of our community lives in poverty and does not have healthy access. Until then, we’ll continue to do what we can.”

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