
{"id":7283,"date":"2009-10-02T07:24:10","date_gmt":"2009-10-02T15:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=7283"},"modified":"2009-10-02T07:24:43","modified_gmt":"2009-10-02T15:24:43","slug":"recently-the-market-with-a-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2009\/10\/02\/recently-the-market-with-a-soul\/","title":{"rendered":"Recently: The market with a soul"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Valarie Schwartz, columnist<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Carrboro Farmers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Market continues bridging divides, as it brings the dream of a new locovore paradigm closer to reality. Thanks to a woman who was willing to be the axle, a wheel of food for the needy began to spin 15 weeks ago, but a new revolution began last Saturday. <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Margaret Gifford and her husband, John Whitehead, relocated here from San Francisco almost two years ago with their daughter, Sophie, now 3. Gifford, 44, and taking a break from her career as a public relations executive to be a stay-at-home mom, quickly adopted the Carrboro Farmers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Market as her first source for produce.<\/p>\n<p>One day when she overheard a farmer ruing that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be composting the tomatoes he had not sold that day, an idea sparked. She conferred with Sarah Blacklin, the Carrboro Farmers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Market manager, and soon began taking collection boxes to the Wednesday and Saturday markets to collect food from farmers wishing to donate what they had not sold. The farmers embraced it enthusiastically, happy to provide their fresh, (mostly) organic foods to those who need it but can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get it on their own.<br \/>\n Gifford delivered her boxes to the food bank at the Inter-Faith Council for Social Services (IFC) in Carrboro, and food now also goes to other Triangle agencies that serve the needy. Blacklin connected Gifford with her summer intern, Adam Sherwood, who is part of Fair Local Organic, a student-run program that has begun to change menus at UNC dining halls, incorporating wholesome locally grown foods. He organized teams of students to collect and deliver the donated food to the agencies. <\/p>\n<p>Last Saturday, a new phase, the Farmer FoodShare Challenge, began, allowing shoppers to get into the giving act by donating purchases from vendors. The goal was to collect 1,000 pounds of food.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Our final total for Saturday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s event was 1,736 pounds of fresh food \u00e2\u20ac\u201d eggs, meat, cheese, fruit and vegetables,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Gifford wrote in an email message. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is far more food than we normally get on a Saturday, even at the height of the season!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>It also brings the 15-week total up to 9,810 pounds \u00e2\u20ac\u201d insuring that 10,000 pounds will be reached by week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s end.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This was the first time we directly asked shoppers to follow the farmers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 example,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Gifford said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We were overwhelmed by the response.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Saturday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s event was fantastic,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Sherwood said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What Margaret has done, along with all the volunteers and the support, especially of the farmers and shoppers, is simply incredible.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>It took eight volunteers, who collected, boxed, weighed and transported food to the IFC, CORA Food Pantry, the Durham Food Bank and the N.C. Hunger Project.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Unfortunately, there is a good deal of hunger and food insecurity in our Triangle community,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Gifford said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You might be surprised to know what the demographics are. They are not only the most destitute . . . but also people who are working, like firefighters, restaurant workers, social workers or others, who do not make a living wage in the Triangle. Recipients are also people who have been laid off and are working to find jobs, but must choose between paying their mortgage or utilities and buying food for their families. Emergency food assistance provided by our participating organizations and others helps these people through a rough spot.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Feedback from the farmers and shoppers will keep the wheel turning. Blacklin said that Ken Dawson, owner\/producer of Maple Spring Gardens Farm (and the farmer Gifford overheard making the comment about composting), told her that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d had a conversation with a customer who said she was delighted to see local produce being donated to hunger relief. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153She told Ken that one of the reasons she loves the Carrboro Farmers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Market so much is because it is a market with a soul,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Blacklin relayed. <\/p>\n<p>Yep, soul and heart and local sweat and tears, combined with a savvy woman willing to take on a challenge, have furthered a food movement. Carrboro\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Locovore Revolution would make Michael Pollan (Omnivore\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Dilemma, In Defense of Food) right proud. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s keep it turning!<\/p>\n<p>Contact Valarie Schwartz at valariekays (at) mac.com or 923-3746.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Valarie Schwartz, columnist The Carrboro Farmers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Market continues bridging divides, as it brings the dream of a new locovore paradigm closer to reality. Thanks to a woman who was willing to be the axle, a wheel of food for the needy began to spin 15 weeks ago, but a new revolution began last Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-recently"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7283"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7285,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7283\/revisions\/7285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}