Blueyville, the blog

Today I participated in Barnard’s First Year Reach Out (FYRO) program. I was with about twenty other girls who helped out with a “farmer’s market” in the South Bronx.

Going into it, I was like, “Yay, farmer’s market. I love fruit!” City Harvest actually “rescues” food left over from restaurants, caterers, and other markets and distributes it in areas that need the fresh produce. Of course, in certain urban areas residents have trouble eating well because fresh food is less accessible and more expensive and, I suppose, sometimes they don’t realize the benefits. City Harvest contributes to a greater initiative toward helping communities change themselves in appropriate ways, whether that means more nutrition education or opening new grocery stores.

That was the basic idea I was imagining, but the actual experience did not quite fit what I’d pictured. There were three developments surrounding a NYC Housing Authority parking lot that served as the location for the market, which today was distributing bananas, tomatoes, potatoes, red peppers, and bagged salad. The residents are pre-registered for a certain amount of food; they shop for produce at each table and then volunteers weigh the amount and check off the residents’ cards.

Risa and I started off working at salad, which seemed cleanest and easiest–it was just, “Good morning!” “Two bags [smile]!” “Have a great day!” Then we transfered to the red pepper table because they needed help. And, yes, they really did need help. At the red pepper table I lost all illusions of a quaint market where farmers sold their rosy, locally-grown apples and so forth. Half of these peppers were rotting. Not, like, kind of bruised and oh I’ll just cut off this side and it’s all right. Rotting as in mushy, dripping liquid, and displaying strange white puss like I’ve never seen on produce before. Luckily, we had gloves (my hands still smell like latex, though). We volunteers tried to sort through and get out the gross ones and put up new, fresh boxes as often as possible so the residents didn’t get frustrated with them.

Does this sound awful? It was actually a good time, overall, if not what I’d expected. I don’t mean to say that all the food had gone bad; there were plenty of good fruit and vegetables, but I think this load of peppers was particularly bad. The tomatoes looked appealing, and they were the ripe on the vine kind. The residents were very kind and friendly and appreciated the good peppers that did turn up. We talked about what they were going to do with all those peppers; some were allotted 8 or 10 pounds. Sometimes kids who couldn’t even see into the boxes showed up, and I liked to help them find the good ones. It’s something I’d be interested in doing again, and most other people I talked to said the same thing. Eventually they’ll phase out the market in that area, hopefully having made an impact of helping the community educate itself and become healthier.