Southeast Area Farmers’ Market hosting MobileGR Saturday at MLK Jr Park

Southeast Area Farmer’s Market
11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at MLK Jr. Park

We warmly welcome SNAP, Bridge Cards, WIC and Doube Up Food Bucks!

When you’re picking up your delicious fresh produce at the market Saturday, stop and chat with Mobile GR staff to discover how you can be more mobile in GR.

Mobile GR provides Grand Rapids residents, workers, and visitors with 21^st Century Mobility. In addition to managing street parking, ramps, and lots, Mobile GR is working to broaden transportation options and strengthen those in place. According to the City of Grand Rapids website,

“We know social justice, economic development, and transportation depend on each other’s success. We work to improve our quality of life by getting more people to use active transportation. We want to help expand people’s options so they can choose to take transit, walk, bike, carpool, or drive alone.”

Mobile GR sharing resources with market patrons July 28

Jul25

Southeast Area Farmer’s Market
11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at LINC, Madison Ave. Parking Lot
Bridge Cards, Double Up Food Bucks and WIC Welcome!

mobile-gr-graphic Mobile GR provides Grand Rapids residents, workers, and visitors with 21^st Century Mobility. In addition to managing street parking, ramps, and lots, Mobile GR is working to broaden transportation options and strengthen those in place. According to the City of Grand Rapids website,

When you’re picking up your delicious fresh produce at the market Saturday, stop and chat with Mobile GR staff to discover how you can be more mobile in GR.

City of Grand Rapids engages OKT to develop growing guide

Jul18

GR Growing Guide final Our Kitchen Table has completed an eight-page Growing Community, Justice & Food guide in conjunction with Stacy Stout, City of Grand Rapids assistant to the city manager, who works with the City’s Neighborhood Match Fund grant program. The guide includes materials that OKT had previously shared in other handouts and presentations as well as additional information that Stout thought would be helpful. Folks receiving funds from NMF for food garden projects can use the guide to help them grow successfully.

NMF provides small matching grants for community-focused projects that:

Identify, develop and network residents
Build stronger connections among residents and in their neighborhoods
Address and promote social justice
Benefit the public

Grand Rapids residents, informal resident groups (e.g. block clubs) in Grand Rapids, and community-based organizations located in and serving Grand Rapids can apply. NMF contracts are between $200 and $2,500. The amount awarded depends on the amount requested, project scope, alignment with NMF objectives and NMF balance. The NMF committee reviews applications quarterly. The next application period runs from September 1, 2018 to September 30, 2018.

You can download the guide for free here.

Healthy Homes to share resources at farmers’ market Saturday

Jul13

11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays through November
MLK Jr. Park, 900 Fuller Ave. SE 49506
Bridge Cards/EBT/SNAP and WIC Welcome!
We do Double Up Food Bucks!

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Staff members from the Healthy Homes Coalition will be at the July 14 Southeast Area Farmers’ Market to share resources and information about their programs. “The mission of the Healthy Homes Coalition is to improve children’s health and well being by eliminating harmful housing conditions.”

Programs include:

Healthy Homes for Healthy Kids. Healthy Housing Specialists provide preventive in-home visits for low-income families with children 0-5 years of age or children with asthma. Issues include lead poisoning, asthma, accidental injury (trips/falls, burns/scalds, poisoning, suffocation, etc.), and lung cancer.
Breathe Easier Asthma Program, for households with children with asthma who have repeat emergency department visits or hospital admissions. The project includes provision of consumer goods and home repairs to address asthma triggers (carpet removal, fix leaks and control moisture, pest management, ventilation, and more).
Fire Safety Program, a one-on-one in-home education on fire safety coupled with free smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detector installations.
Radon Testing via do-it-yourself radon kits. Radon is a naturally occurring gas and is the second leading cause of lung cancer.
Get the Lead Out! Assistance to repair all lead hazards in the home.

For more information and qualifications, stop by Saturday or visit the Healthy Homes Coalition website.

Our farmers’ market is back!

Jul10

Southeast Area Farmers’ Market, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays through November at MLK Jr. Park, 900 Fuller Ave. SE 49506.

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First day of the 2018 market! Photo by Grace Michienzi

gmichienzi Last Saturday, the Southeast Area Farmers’ Market held its first 2018 market. We got off to a good start! (Despite the competing clean-up event.) The Grand Rapids Fire Department was on hand sharing resources from its Residential Safety Program (RSP). And, area residents enjoyed a nice selection of local produce.

If you stopped by the market, you may have noticed a new face at the main table. Grace Michienzi is spending her summer as an intern with Our Kitchen Table and MSU Extension. Originally from West Michigan, she went to Hudsonville High School. She says that she is excited to be working in a community that she considers her home.

Grace is a junior at Michigan State University studying Social Relations and Policy with a minor in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems. Throughout her life, she has had a passion for social justice issues, but it was not until she went to college that she learned that she also has a passion for food and food justice.

“It all started with a research paper that I wrote about urban farming and its
history,” Grace says. “I began to learn about food movements within cities to address the social and environmental inequities.”

She also loves to learn about organic gardening and farming, food policy issues such as the Farm Bill, and environmental issues regarding food production. You may have read Grace’s very informative post about the Farm Bill on our website.

“Mostly, I want to learn about the connections between people and their
food, and in what ways food movements can be as successful as possible at serving the
communities and neighborhoods they are meant to serve,” she says. “I have already learned so much in my weeks as an intern so far, and I am looking forward to learning more!

Besides her studies, Grace loves to hike, be outdoors, garden, cook, and travel. She has an adorable dog named Fish who she love to spend time with outside. She adds,”I love that I will get to spend a lot of time outside at the South East Farmers Market this summer!”