For the second straight year, University Hospitals Portage Medical Center and Raven Packs are finding ways to provide low-income families with fresh food. The organizations are bringing summer farmer’s markets which offer fresh produce to different locations across the Ravenna community.
“This year we are serving eight different communities in Ravenna,” Raven Packs Founder Laura Wunderle told The Weekly Villager on July 17. “We are really reaching quite a few families here and lots of individuals as a result. This market is reaching out to the folks here at Terrill Suites and then next week we will reach out to a different community.”
The summer market will take place in a span of eight weeks over the summer, with a market appearing in a new location each week, having just recently set up a stall in its second week at Terrill Suites.
According to UH Medical Portage Center Outreach Nurse Mindy Gusz, it is all about not only reaching low-income families with additional opportunities to obtain food but also provide better nutritional options.
“Both Laura and I have a lot of passion to help those in our county with food and security,” Gusz told The Weekly Villager. “We both come to it in different places with our organizations of Raven Packs and UH Portage Center. Both are trying to support and trying to help those who don’t have food and security. This was an additional program that we came up with.”
At the latest summer market, the fresh produce that was available consisted of cucumbers, potatoes, yellow squash, sugar snap peas, potatoes, green beans, apples and pears. All produce was purchased with funds donated to Raven Packs and come directly from local farm groups, master gardeners and the Kent Garden Club
Gusz said each week she and Wunderle distribute coolers to three different sites: the Kent Garden Club, UH Portage Medical Center and Raven Packs, and the farmers would fill those coolers with fresh produce. On either the day before or the day of, they visit each location to pick up the coolers and immediately display the produce at the summer market.
Wunderle said that a family could make quite a few meals from the fresh produce they obtain at the market.
“They can certainly get a couple of meals out of it and some snacks for the kids, try to do a combination of vegetables and fruit; the kids can really enjoy some of that fresh fruit,” she added.
Wunderle noted that the families who usually visit the markets may be purchasing food from other sources at lower costs, but those low prices do not equate to healthier options. She added that families striving for more sources of food are prevalent during the summertime, where there is plenty of fresh produce available, but they do not necessarily have the means to obtain that food.
“Definitely, a lot of things that are less expensive are also less healthy, so that is a problem,” she said. “The benefit of us bringing this right to families is that they have healthy options and don’t have to consider that cost.”
In addition to offering fresh produce, the summer markets receive assistance from undergraduate or graduate students from Kent State University’s School of Public Health. Any food that is left over at each market is donated to Raven Packs.
In just their second year of existence, the summer markets have reached a broader base in Ravenna compared to last year. Despite having nine weeks of fresh produce, the summer markets have only occurred in three different sites, cycling through each one three times. In its inaugural year, Gusz said that 525 people received fresh produce, including 328 children, 197 adults and 149 families.
This year, the summer market may last only eight weeks but, in each week, it will take place at a different venue, having already set up shop at Terrill Suites and the Community Action Youth Center. The summer markets will also be operated at various locations such as the King Kennedy Community Center and the Skeels-Matthews Community Center.
“We really just brainstormed as we were laying out the plan where we could reach out,” Wunderle noted. “We reached out to the Community Action Council and then directly to King Kennedy, Skeels Community Centers. They were very excited about it so we made it happen.”
While the theme of each market is farmer’s produce, Gusz said that the selection will differ at several ones.
“In July and August, it is zucchini time and tomato time so we are probably going to have heavier donations on what is going to grow in their gardens seasonally,” she noted. “I think we have been thoughtful in trying to carry things that have some shelf life and also that we can provide to everybody.”
