SPRING NEWSLETTER 2015

On a blustery day in January, a warm and inviting buzz filled a corner store at 352 Jay Street in Rochester. Stop One Meat Market, located in the heart of the JOSANA neighborhood held a grand re-opening, at which city leaders, key community members,

and the press saw the end result of an incredible labor of love. Stop One was no longer the typical urban corner store. What was once a dark tunnel of chips and candy with a fortress-like counter now boasted an open seating area, cases of fresh produce, meat, and a WIC center.

Stop One is the first of two pilot locations to partner with Foodlink as part of our Community Store Initiative. “I wanted to provide the neighbors a safe place to go where the focus is on fresh fruits and vegetables,” said Waseem Baji, owner.

Foodlink secured grant money from Citizen’s Bank and the Low Income Investment Fund to provide Stop One with funding that included completion of SNAP and WIC certifications, internal renovations, new equipment, and a strategic marketing campaign. Foodlink oversaw the remodel –

turning the shop into a safe and inviting place.

“Most of my customers, when they enter the store now, they say it’s better than before and are amazed,” said Baji.

“A lot of people are invested in this store’s success,” said Mitch Gruber, Foodlink’s Director of Programs and Innovation. “We are excited to see new access points for healthy foods in neighborhoods that once were ignored. To end hunger, we need to have these partners invested in their own neighborhoods.”

Recognizing the value of home-cooked meals and healthy lifestyles, Baji ensures that he always has a variety of fresh offerings in his store. “When customers need to cook – they need garlic, tomatoes, something like that – they stop here because I have everything for them,” he said. Foodlink continues to provide support for Baji and Stop One, including nutrition education, sourcing affordable produce, and promotional outreach.

In the meantime, work is ongoing at the second store – T&K Mini-Mart on Carter Street. A grand re-opening there is expected in the coming weeks.

Baji has high expectations for his store. He’s keeping prices low to keep customers coming back. “Honestly, I encourage everybody now, all other stores,” Baji said. “I tell them in some time they’ll see a big difference in their store. Hopefully, we’ll see this program expand.”

Foodlink addresses the root causes of hunger by increasing access to healthy, fresh food in underserved communities. Through our Food Access Programs — the Community Store Initiative, the Community Garden Project, Urban Farms Stands, and Curbside Market — we are transforming

neighborhoods by improving the availability of affordable, locally grown produce.

GROWING A HEALTHIER COMMUNITY

The Community Store Initiative EAT FRESH, FEEL GOOD

Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren with Stop One Meat Market owner Waseem Baji.

Foodlink’s Garden Project is rapidly growing, sending up new shoots in communities across our ten counties and deepening our roots at existing garden sites. In the 2014 growing season, we harvested over 11,000 pounds of fresh and organically-raised produce from 19 gardens. These gardens represented 16 unique community-based partnerships in five counties. Each garden Foodlink partners with receives all the needed materials at no cost to the program, thanks to New York State’s Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program (HPNAP). Not only does the produce grown through the Garden Project go directly to the people who need it most in our communities, but the garden sites engage clients in actually growing and preparing the food.

Some of our gardens are small, like the four raised beds on the Northwest Neighborhood Outreach Center’s parking lot – a garden that still produced over 300 pounds of food for their lunch program. Some of our gardens

rank among the largest and most productive in the city of Rochester – like the Lexington Avenue Urban Farm, where 37 families from Rochester’s Nepalese refugee community grew over 4,000 pounds of produce and a 75-foot hoop house grows specialty crops for our Curbside Market. In addition to the food grown, more than 200 participants in the Garden Project receive $5 vouchers they can use to buy additional produce at local farmers markets, amplifying the economic impact of The Garden Project.

We’ve got big plans germinating for the 2015 growing season. The Garden Project will grow to 26 locations, representing 20 partnerships in seven counties. We hope to harvest over 15,000 pounds of food. More and more of our gardens are making their own compost, starting their own seeds, and using their gardens to build new community partnerships and independent programming. St. Mark’s & St. John’s, an Episcopal church in the Beechwood Neighborhood of Rochester, for example, has leveraged its garden to revitalize its parish community; by building partnerships with neighboring churches and non-profits, they have grown into a four-

location garden network of their own.

Beyond the nutrition education and gardening workshops that we provide for our partners, these gardens host youth, intergenerational, and therapeutic gardening, and a space for communities and neighborhoods to come together to celebrate food.

The Garden ProjectSOWING SEEDS OF CHANGE

FOODLINK SPRING NEWSLETTER 2015

We’re excited to announce that our Lexington Avenue Urban Farm (LAUF) has received a $20,000 Green City Grant from the Rochester Area Community Foundation! The Green City Program seeks to support improvements to the physical environment of community green spaces in low-income neighborhoods.

This funding will allow us to grow to 50 families participating in the community garden, expand LAUF’s footprint, improve our infrastructure and hoop house, add fruit trees and beehives, and better engage our neighbors. LAUF is an important part of Foodlink’s Food Access programming, and this grant will help it become a keystone of Rochester’s growing urban agriculture community.

Lexington Ave. Urban Farm gets Green City grant

Curbside MarketA PRODUCE AISLE ON WHEELS

From June to October in the Finger Lakes region, customers flock to their neighborhood markets to meet local farmers and purchase fruits, vegetables, eggs, and more.

Unfortunately, many individuals in the Rochester region, don’t have physical or financial access to farmers markets. Many communities are considered “food deserts” because they have neither farmers markets or grocery stores. Foodlink’s Curbside Market tries to mitigate this lack of access by bringing high- quality, local produce to under-served areas and selling it at affordable prices.

From July to December 2014, the Curbside Market sold over 100,000 pounds of local fruits and vegetables at 74 housing facilities and health centers — one-third of the market’s sales were SNAP, WIC, and NYS Fresh Connect redemptions.

Thanks to the donation of a retrofitted limo bus, under-written by Citizens Bank, the Curbside Market doubled its sales and reached four additional counties: Orleans, Genesee, Ontario, and Wayne.

The purpose of the Curbside Market, and all of Foodlink’s Food Access Programs, is to reach individuals that aren’t necessarily served in similar capacity by our partner agencies, especially those who use SNAP or WIC as a form of payment. The service is most seen through the Curbside Market’s prices: eggs are $1.25 a dozen, collards are $1.00 a bunch, and green

beans are $1.00 a quart.One customer shared

her enthusiasm for the market’s affordable options: “I only get $15 a month on food stamps. [In some stores], I can only get a small portion of what I could get here.

So I used to not even buy fruits and vegetables because I couldn’t even afford it. Now I eat an awful lot of fruits and vegetables.”

Seasonality is a huge factor in the Curbside Market offerings. We never have bananas, cherries are offered for two weeks in July, and we sell apples year-round. That’s thanks to our twofold mission: To improve public health by increasing access to nutritious foods, and to support local farms and agricultural economic development.

FOODLINK SPRING NEWSLETTER 2015

“I only get $15 a month on food stamps ... So I used to not buy fruits and

vegetables because I couldn’t afford it. Now I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables.”

Urban Farm Stands

Foodlink partners with organizations around Rochester to improve access to healthy, fresh food for surrounding communities.

In 2014, farm stands ...• sold 8,000 pounds of fresh, local produce• reached 2,000 customers• hosted 21 nutrition education

workshops

Beginning July 6, 2015:• 10 Farm Stands will operate for 10 weeks• Nutrition education workshops are

planned throughout the season

FOOD ACCESS PROGRAM CONTACTSMITCH GRUBER

Director of Programs & Innovation585.328.3380 x113 | mgruber@foodlinkny.org

NATHANIEL MICH Community Food Access Programs Coordinator585.328.3380 x145 | nmich@foodlinkny.org

WWW.FOODLINKNY.ORG

Foodlink’s Community Nutrition Education staff has expanded with the addition of three Eat Smart New York (ESNY) Community Educators as part of the Finger Lakes Eat Smart New York Program. The ESNY Program funds community-based nutrition education and obesity prevention activities targeted to SNAP-eligible populations. Food insecurity is a significant contributor to poor nutrition. ESNY objectives are to increase access to and consumption of fruits and vegetables, to reduce the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, and to increase physical activity. Foodlink’s ESNY Community Educators will provide a variety of workshops throughout the Rochester region.

NEW NUTRITION EDUCATION PROGRAM

The Summer Meals Program begins June 29.

For more information, call 211.

Mark your calendars! Our annual celebration of local food is set for

Monday, September 21, 2015.

Sponsored by

Jeanette Batiste and Julia TedescoEXECUTIVE DIRECTORS