Wednesday May 7

Farmers market set to open

Seven vendors will sell produce weekly

By Banks Albach / Daily News Staff Writer

June 1 is going to be a very green day behind St. Francis of Assisi Church on Bay Road in East Palo Alto.

That Sunday will mark the launch of the city's first weekly farmers market, the culmination of an eight-month effort by a handful of people to bring fresh produce to East Palo Alto, which hasn't had a supermarket for about 30 years.

The city council heard a brief update on Tuesday night from the market's manager, Cornelia Fletcher, who said she and her partners have a tentative list of seven vendors who will offer a variety of vegetables, fruits, berries and nuts. The key, she said after meeting, is to start off small and give participating vendors a chance to sell their products out.

In 1994, East Palo Alto had a farmers market for six weeks, Mayor Patrica Foster said before the meeting. But since then, the only thing comparable was a very small one at the city's senior center, she said.

"This is one is well-organized," Foster said. "I think there is also the hope that the market will be a meeting place for residents."
The East Palo Alto Community Farmers Market has been in the making for about the last year and grew out of community health round table that studied asthma and obesity in the city, said organizer Wolfram Alderson, executive director of Collective Roots.

A recent study from the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, for example, showed that 27.7 percent of East Palo Alto's fifth-, seventh- and ninth-graders are overweight. Part of Alderson's work with Collective Roots is to teach elementary students the importance of not only eating healthy, but being able to grow healthfully food in a garden. The nonprofit, which started in 2001, is based at East Palo Alto Charter school.

"But it really doesn't help to teach kids to eat fresh fruits and vegetables in the classroom if there are none in the community," Alderson said.

Alderson said that the market's board has raised about $15,000 so far and that it usually takes $25,000 per year for a farmers market to break even. He said the board has compiled all of the necessary paperwork, including state certification, insurance, a use permit from the city and an agreement with the church for a year. The market will run from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. and hopefully become a destination for community members after church on Sundays, Alderson said.



E-mail Banks Albach at balbach@dailynewsgroup.com.