Building from scratch
Eli Penberthy wants Spokane to get excited about fresh, local food. Not just eating it, but learning about its healthful and social benefits – everything from cooking from scratch and supporting area farms to environmental concerns and knowledge of sustainable agriculture.
“I am really interested in how food affects our lives in so many ways – not only through health, but social relationships and the environment,” said the 23-year-old graduate of Pomona College, now the founding director of Spokane’s Friends of the Farmers’ Market, a new nonprofit group that champions a local, sustainable food system.
Although much of Penberthy’s work involves promoting area growers through the downtown Spokane Farmers’ Market, her organization also seeks to raise community awareness with a variety of tasty and educational activities throughout the upcoming market season and beyond.
With the May 13 opening of the market fast approaching, Penberthy is planning a plethora of workshops, tastings, film screenings and “Shop with the Chef” days in an effort to educate the community about the social, economic, ecological and nutritional benefits of eating sustainable, locally grown foods.
Next Wednesday, the Friends will host a spring celebration of Northwest artisanal delicacies, including organic wines, breads, cheeses, chocolate, nuts and more. The event at the Spokane Community Building, 35 W. Main Ave., is part of the group’s effort to tout the culinary bounty of the region, even in the off-season.
Over the summer Penberthy is tentatively slated to host a free farm tour in the Kettle Falls area, guiding participants through Cliffside Orchard, Crandall Coffee Roasters, and the Quillisascut Cheese Farm, where lunch and a lesson in making goat cheese will be included.
“Of course, all of this is contingent on getting money to make this possible,” Penberthy said. Although she receives a stipend through a grant from the Spokane-based New Priorities Foundation, Penberthy hopes to seek additional funds through a U.S. Department of Agriculture endowment. Beyond that, Friends of the Farmers’ Market will rely largely on member contributions and other private funding, she said.
One of the organization’s top priorities this year is to find a new, permanent location for the Spokane Farmers’ Market, one that will provide a dynamic and vibrant space for community gathering in the downtown area.
The market has moved several times over the past decade, and since 1999 it has been shoehorned into a church parking lot at Second Avenue and Division. The cramped, asphalt-paved venue is literally hellish come midsummer, according to Penberthy, allowing for a mere 24 vending stalls with no room for future growth. Add to this a lack of parking, nowhere to sit and no public restrooms, and Spokane is left with “a very makeshift market,” Penberthy said.
A member of the Spokane Farmers’ Market Council, Penberthy represents the group on all issues, including the location change. Several potential sites are under consideration, including Riverfront Park, the Community Building, the proposed community garden, the university district, and the downtown shopping district. Although Penberthy has made some headway on the relocation issue with Washington State University in Spokane and the developers of the new Kendall Yards project, she hopes the city will play a stronger role in supporting a community market.
“It’s really been interesting to see the politics and bureaucracy behind this – not everyone understands the value of a public market,” Penberthy said. “Other cities have really made this a priority, and Spokane has not.”
Penberthy is also focused on continuing the Farmers Market Nutrition Program, part of the Women, Infants and Children program. Last year the government-subsidized effort put more than $70,000 in the pockets of local farmers by offering food allowances to low-income families to spend at the Spokane Farmers’ Market. The market took in a total of $225,000 in 2005.
Penberthy credits the success of last year’s program to local WIC coordinators who passed out vouchers for fresh fruits, vegetables and other foods at the market during its Wednesday and Saturday business hours.
But the practice will be modified this year in favor of distributing the checks at Spokane’s two WIC offices, according to Rebecca Knapp of the Spokane Regional Health District. Knapp said this will facilitate WIC clients who wish to shop at two additional farmers’ markets – the Humble Earth Farmers’ Market located near Shadle Park and the Cheney Farmers’ Market – that were recently given the green light to participate in the WIC program.
Knapp said the two new markets broaden the geographic base of families who can benefit from the funds.
“It is great for WIC families because there are more apt to be markets in the neighborhoods where they live,” Knapp said. But Penberthy is concerned the redemption rate for the vouchers will diminish if the checks are not available on site during the markets’ hours of operation.
“That could be the case,” said Jean O’Leary, FMNP program manager at the Washington Department of Health in Olympia. “There are areas that have high redemption rates, and that’s where agencies distribute the checks at the market. But we work a lot with our WIC staff to talk to the clients about using the checks, and we make sure they get into the hands of families that have an interest and are able to make it to the market during the season.”
For more information about Friends of the Farmers’ Market or upcoming events call Penberthey at 951-4361 or go to: www.friendsofthemarket.com.