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Spoke Folks at Southeast Area Farmers’ Market today
Today, the Spoke Folks will be at the Southeast Area Farmers’ Market, which takes place Fridays and Saturdays at MLK Jr. Park, 900 Fuller Ave. SE 49506. Representatives from this amazing Grand Rapids non-profit are favorites with market patrons because they not only provide advice and information, they also do bike repairs on-site and teach children and adults how to make their own minor bicycle repairs. They will return to the market July 23, August 20 and September 10.
The Spoke Folks mission is to increase and sustain bicycle ridership in the West Michigan area and beyond. Their goal is to make sure that people who are interested in cycling have access to safe and reliable bikes. And, their hope is to break down the obstacles that prevent people from cycling.
The Spoke Folks also run a non-profit, co-operative bike shop. They don’t fix bikes. Instead, they give cyclists tools and knowledge to fix them themselves. Don’t have a bike? The Spoke Folks refurbish and sell used bicycles of all kinds for pretty cheap. Stop by to see what they’ve got in stock. Also, the Spoke Folks stock new and used bike parts and accessories.
The Southeast Area Farmers’ Market is open 3 to 7 p.m. Fridays and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays. Vendors gladly accept SNAP, WIC, and Senior Project Fresh/Market FRESH and Double Up Food Bucks.
“Am I Next” city-wide bike ride Saturday
9am Registration, free bike tune ups & giveaways. 9:30am begin cycling. 11am arrive to Rosa Park Circle. 12pm– “Am I Next” Peaceful Rally Rosa Park Circle.
Note: Black Lives Matter – Grand Rapids did not create this event or orchestrate the rally, nor have they been organizing along with 4Unity, the team behind it. See their note below the image.
Black Lives Matter: Grand Rapids’ Official Statement on the “Am I Next?” 4Unity Rally
There has been a lot of confusion regarding Black Lives Matter: Grand Rapids’ role in the upcoming “Am I Next?” Rally happening at Rosa Parks’ Circle this upcoming Saturday afternoon, in large part due to the term “Black Lives Matter” that was originally in the event’s title. The term “Black Lives Matter,” while coined by the three Black women who created the Black Lives Matter official movement, is used by various activists, advocates, organizers and movement workers both within and outside the official network to center Black victims of police brutality. However, to clarify whose event it was and to help direct people to the rightful organizers of the 4Unity rally, we asked the name be changed. We did not create the event page or orchestrate the rally, nor have we been organizing along with 4Unity, the team behind it.
Regardless, BLM:GR originally intended to show solidarity with 4Unity and their rally by spreading the word on our social media outlets, having a presence, and supporting the young Black leaders behind it in any way they requested of us. We reached out on Facebook, but due to the volume of responses the 4Unity organizers received, were unsuccessful in discussing a possible collaboration or get in conversation with the youth who led the event. However, having followed the page, spoke with other concerned community members including the new organizer behind the scenes, a business woman by the name of Monica Sparks, the co-option of the event by adults, police, and others in seats of power is very clear. This is no longer an event that centers the lives lost to state violence, anti-Black police brutality or even conversations on how to support victims and deter the problem in our own city. While we respect the youth leadership and the direction they wish to take their event, we cannot stand in solidarity with the turn this rally has taken nor the public statements made regarding the issues at hand and do not wish to be affiliated with it.
To say there has not been an incident of excessive force, racial profiling, discrimination, targeted racial and sexual harassment and intimidation by the hands of the police in Grand Rapids is a dangerous erasure of the truth and betrays the alleged desires of #4Unity for peace. The King Park incident of last summer, the physical assault of Donovan Braswell, as well as the racial and sexual assault of a Black woman at the hands of former GRPD officer Ryan Bruggink are all clear incidents of police violence against Black residents of Grand Rapids. The numerous other incidents that have not been brought to light should also be taken into account and recognized by the community. Before anyone gets their “peace” (which has long become code for silence, passivity, compliance and respectability), we deserve justice. Before talks of unity, we must speak openly about how Black and Brown communities are viciously torn apart by systems and institutions of injustice and violence.
Additionally, we do not believe that victims of brutality could have “done something different” to avoid the violence they experienced. We do not think it is appropriate to ask members oppressed communities to look at their oppressors and join hands with them in times such as these. The Grand Rapids chapter of Black Lives Matter is committed to radical change. We do not think those who police, intimidate and enact violence on communities are healthy, functioning parts of those communities and regard with suspicion those who believe that moral appeals will save Black people from public execution.
In Power,
Black Lives Matter: GR.
Southeast Area Farmers’ Market partners with YMCA Veggie Van
Southeast Area Farmers’ Market
MLK Jr. Park
Fridays 3 to 7 p.m.
Saturdays 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
SNAP, WIC, Sr. Project Fresh/Market FRESH and Double Up Food Bucks
The Southeast Area Farmers’ Market has another new vendor: The YMCA Veggie Van. Because it operates on a smaller scale than most farmers’ markets, the market has had challenges attracting more vendors. The Veggie Van will nicely complement the great range of items that its current vendors offer—especially now that the market is located at MLK Jr. Park, 900 Fuller Ave. SE, and has a lot more traffic.
Like its other faithful vendors, the Veggie Van will sell locally grown, top-quality fruits and vegetables and accept SNAP, WIC, and Senior Project Fresh/Market FRESH benefits. And, like the Southeast Area Farmers’ Market, it receives funding from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.
While the Veggie Van will only be at the Southeast Area Farmers’ Market on Saturdays, the regular market vendors will be on hand both market days: 3 to 7 p.m. Fridays and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays. Please come out and support these vendors who live, work and grow right here in Grand Rapids’ southeast neighborhoods!
The Tolberts are back with their amazing greens and other delicious in-season produce. Mr. Price offers fresh fruits as well as Watkins products. Ms. Yvonne Woodard, Ms. Darlene Gibbons and other regulars offer everything from herbs and chemical-free produce to kettle corn and craft items. When you buy from these vendors, you not only get healthy foods, you also help build an alternative food system that more justly serves your neighborhood.
Shakara Taylor to host OKT food justice event Monday
Shakara and her daughter shared many important insights at her April presentation.
Diagramming Your Food System
6 to 8 p.m. Monday July 18
Garfield Park Lodge
334 Burton St. SE
Grand Rapids MI 49507
On Monday, OKT’s special guest, Shakara Taylor, will help us to identify how the industrial food system functions in our neighborhoods and, despite its limitations, figure out ways to build a healthier food portfolio for our families and community. Whether you are a parent, grandparent or live alone and want to discover better ways to stretch your food dollar and improve your diet, this workshop is for you. OKT also welcomes those who work on issues of hunger, under-nutrition and food justice.
A mother, returning generation farmer, educator, activist-scholar and PhD student at Michigan State University, Department of Community Sustainability, Shakara explores decolonial pedagogies in the food justice and food sovereignty movements within the communal praxis of black agrarianism. Her personal journey of loving, healing and decolonizing is intimately wedded with working and learning with the land. She is committed to working with communities and using land-based activism to build food sovereign communities.
Food Justice Primer tonight!
Food Justice Primer 
Monday July 11 from 6 to 8 p.m.
Garfield Park Lodge
334 Burton St. SE 49507
For the better part of a decade, people in West Michigan have been excited about and explored the importance of eating local and eating organic. The idea of eating healthier foods in many ways has become mainstream. However, for people experiencing income challenges or living in neighborhoods of color, access to these healthier foods is not a reality. A true food apartheid exists in our community—and that’s where the work of food justice begins.
If you want to know more about that work—or become involved in it yourself—please join us for this free, brief introduction to food justice. OKT will facilitate an informal dialogue on the principles of food justice with group input on how we can practice it locally.
Free foraging workshop at Saturday’s market
Urban forager, Laura Casaletto, always has interesting information edibles growing in your yard, park and neighborhood.
Urban Foraging
12 – 2 p.m. July 9
MLK Jr. Park
900 Fuller Ave. SE 49506
Did you know that many of the native species we see around us (and label as weeds) once were a prize source of both food and medicine? On Saturday July 9, Our Kitchen Table’s urban forester, Laura Casaletto, will lead an Urban Foraging Workshop at the Southeast Area Farmers’ Market. Ms. Casaletto will share how to identify the edible plants growing in your Grand Rapids neighborhoods. She has been using foraging as a means to supplement her family’s food budget for many years.
The Southeast Area Farmers’ Market warmly welcomes patrons using Bridge cards (SNAP), Double Up Food Bucks,WIC Project Fresh, Cash Value Benefits, Summer EBT and debit cards. If you make a purchase with a Bridge Card, you get $1 for every $1 you spend to buy more Michigan produce (up to $20 each visit).
July Events!
Share your community resources
Join us at the market!
Thirsty Thursday fundraiser to share portion of funds with OKT
Stop on by, drink up and do good.Thank you Woman’s Life Chapter 888
Our Kitchen Table 