January 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 27

Children in the Berea Kids Eat summer
program take part in gardening activities, such as designing garden plots and
planting herbs and vegetables.

the Saturday market, as well as a
Tuesday evening market, were the
perfect locations to begin serving
meals through the USDA Summer
Food Service Program (SFSP).
Examples of P&R sites implementing SFSP meals during farmers markets are popping up across
the industry. According to USDA,
these partnerships increase access
to the local seasonal bounty during
the summer months and help keep
kids and their families nourished
and active while school is out.

Berea Kids Eat Partnership
In Berea, the meals, along with
additional activities during market
hours, helped to grow the attendance at each market. During the
summer of 2019, Tuesday markets
averaged 40 to 70 customers - a
dramatic increase of more than
300 percent from previous Tuesday markets, and attendance at
the Saturday market jumped from
110 to 256 daily customers. Berea
credits the programming, as well
as the market location, with the
success found this past summer.
Berea Kids Eat partnered with
parks and rec to move the Tuesday market to a park pavilion located near Berea College student
housing, three local daycares,
an intergenerational center and
low-income apartment complexes.
Additionally, Berea Kids Eat initiated and helped navigate the Saturday Farmers Market move to a
city park plaza, after working with
the city to install shade structures
around existing benches.
To support the meals served at
farmers markets, Berea Kids Eat
worked to incorporate nutritional
programming, using the NRPA's
Foods of the Month nutrition literacy curriculum (nrpa.org/Com

mitToHealth) by distributing recipe cards and hosting taste tests
during the weekly markets. USDA
suggests using this type of engagement to support meal sites at markets, creating full community buy
in. Along with sharing recipes and
hosting taste tests, some other engagement ideas include:
* Menu alignment - Providing a
meal that includes the same fresh
produce available for purchase at
the market.
* Complimentary activities - In
partnership with other local organizations, consider offering fun
nutrition and wellness-focused
activities. For example, a local
library could host story time and
give free books to children to encourage reading throughout the
summer months.
* Kick-off event - Make it a party!
Celebrate the start of the season
with a kick-off event, helping to
raise awareness about the market
and the summer meals program.
* Engage with producers - Organize a scavenger hunt with the
farmers market vendors, which
can lead to some great conversations between kids and growers.

Community Wellness Hubs
The city of Berea has expanded
these ideas and uses its weekly
market spaces to serve as community wellness hubs. Partnering with informal educators, the
space hosts environmental educational programming for youth
joining for summer meals, as well
as outdoor family yoga classes
and a Sprouts program, which
connects youth ages 18 and under to a small stipend to purchase
fresh produce from vendors. The
market, parks and a summer meal
partnership also opened oppor-

tunities for families to increase
purchasing by utilizing EBT/
SNAP, Double Dollars, youth
market tokens, the free produce
store, weekend backpack meals
and summer meals. One mother
shared that since taking advantage of all these offerings, $20
spent at the market has equaled
more than $80 worth of food, has
provided space for her children
to eat regularly and has helped
get them to the park, as well as
enabled her to get to know her
neighbors. As a result of the free
produce store reaching her neighborhood, she has been able to try
some new foods from the provided recipe cards, and now her kids
want to learn how to grow food.
Pairing fresh, local produce with
healthy meals is the perfect connection to strengthen the bonds
between the community and the
local agriculture system. Check out
USDA's Farm to Summer website
(https://tinyurl.com/rhyqdr7), and
the Farmers Market and Summer
Meals Program fact sheet for an overview of the potential farmers markets
and summer meals partnerships..
Maureen Acquino is a Program Manager
at NRPA (macquino@nrpa.org).

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Parks & Recreation

January 2020 - Parks & Recreation

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