What is the program?

The current partnership between SVRC Marketplace and the Downtown Saginaw Farmers’ Market is to create a year-round marketplace for fresh and local food and to insure that people have the knowledge, skills, and motivation to prepare and preserve healthy food for their families. Within the year-round marketplace, a demonstration kitchen will provide a space for people of all walks of life to have their senses guide them to try new foods and learn strategies for improving their own nutrition. The funds from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund (MHEF) grant will be used to start nutrition education programs at the new location (which is projected to open Spring 2017). Local farmers who sell food at the Downtown Saginaw Farmers’ Market have already indicated their desire to assist with the food demonstrations and cooking classes. These growers, along with Michigan State University Extension (MSUE) food safety and preservation specialists, will provide instruction and educational materials to community members through the food demonstration kitchen.

Furthermore, the Downtown Saginaw Farmers’ Market has worked hard to insure that people receiving food assistance benefits are able to benefit from many programs serving individuals and families in need (e.g. Double Up Food Bucks, Project FRESH, Hoophouses for Health, etc.).

How will grant dollars be used?

Funding would be used to start the nutrition education programs at the demonstration kitchen within the new Downtown Saginaw Farmers’ Market location. Funds will be needed to outfit the kitchen with cooking utensils and cookware (pots, pans, cutting boards, knives, etc.). To improve the customer experience with food assistance, we want to upgrade our point of sale capacity for the farmers market making sure we support food assistance programs at the farmers market. For reference, future plans will be the integration of technology into the demonstration kitchen to have video screens showing the demonstrations and cameras capturing the action.

Who do they collaborate with?

The partnership between SVRC Marketplace and the Downtown Saginaw Farmers’ Market are just two of the entities who are collaborating in the community effort to improve health and reduce chronic illness, such as obesity. The partnership between these two entities will create a permanent and stable location for the farmers’ market in Saginaw – which has no large full service grocery stores within the city limits – and where smaller food outlets do not offer the same variety of fresh produce. It is also important to create a profitable marketplace for local farmers to sell fruits and vegetables. These are exactly the kind of foods that Americans need to eat more of and which are not subsidized at the federal level. Supporting farmers is a key to insuring that a variety of healthy food continues to be available for Saginaw County residents. Farmers who sell food at the Downtown Saginaw Farmers’ Market have already indicated their desire to assist with the food demonstrations and cooking classes. These growers, along with MSUE food safety and preservation specialists, will provide instruction and educational materials to community members through the food demonstration kitchen.

The Downtown Saginaw Farmers Market is also an active member of the Obesity Action Group, a subcommittee of the Saginaw Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP). The focus of the group is to reduce obesity and to improve the lives of those residents in Saginaw County. These quarterly meetings allow for sharing, collaborating and networking with other agencies on the subject of healthy lifestyles. The agencies represented promote one another’s programs, support community initiatives and work on joint programming to meet the needs of the people in Saginaw County.

What’s the plan for sustainability?

The Downtown Saginaw Farmers Market will seek sponsorship or underwriting to sustain the demonstration kitchen. For example, the kitchen at the Flint Farmers Market is supported by a local corporate sponsor. Furthermore, once the major purchases of equipment and cookware are made, the Downtown Saginaw Farmers Market will only have to fund the programming – i.e., the actual demonstrations.