North Philadelphia neighborhood gets a produce market

On Thursdays, fresh fruit is now only steps away from the home of Dominique Wilder, 38, a mother of four in the Norris Square community of North Philadelphia.

A tiny farmers market opened at Susquehanna Avenue and North Howard Street on Thursday, offering fresh produce - from apples to zucchini - to a community that does not have much access to healthy groceries.

"Several markets have left the neighborhood in the last few years. It's impossible to get fresh products around here," Wilder said. "But I want my kids to have grapes instead of fries."

City officials and the Philadelphia nonprofit Food Trust joined Thursday to announced the opening of the city's second publicly funded farmers market.

As part of an effort to change consumer habits in poor neighborhoods - replacing junk food and cigarettes with healthy choices - the city Health Department and Food Trust have used federal stimulus money to establish a a program that will eventually establish 10 farmers markets in underserved neighborhoods over the next two years. The markets will be open one day a week through October. The first opened July 13 at Broad and Ritner Streets in South Philadelphia.

"All residents must have access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food," Mayor Nutter said at Thursday's Norris Square market debut. "It's an investment in the health of the people."

The Norris Square community lacks supermarkets.

"We had a lot of mothers calling us and asking where to buy fresh food," said Katy Wich, project manager of the Food Trust. "It's just the right neighborhood."

Studies show that residents in low-income neighborhoods with fewer opportunities to buy fresh food are more likely to suffer from diabetes and obesity. In Norris Square, statistics demonstrate that help is needed. A 2008 household health survey by the nonprofit Public Health Management Corp. showed that 33 percent of residents in the Norris Square community were obese and that one in six adults had diabetes.

A 2001 study by the Food Trust found that Philadelphia had the second-lowest number of supermarkets per capita after Boston.

Through the farmers market program, residents in Norris Square can now buy a basket of apples or peaches for $2, half the chain supermarkets' price.

Solly's Farm, a family owned Bucks County operation, was the first to answer the official request for selling at the market in Norris Square.

"It's just a little profit, if at all. It's more about helping," said John Smith, 21, who works at the farm.

The city hopes to attract more farmers to Norris Square. "We are in talks with other local farmers to join the project," Wich said. "They will sustain themselves. We want the whole square to be a healthy marketplace."

The Food Trust has asked about 1,000 corner groceries in low-income areas in Philadelphia to sign an agreement to stock at least two categories of healthy foods. The 10 farmers markets the trust hopes to establish will be among 15 across the city that will accept Philly Food Bucks, a food-stamp program for lower-income residents. For every $5 participants spend on fresh food at these markets, they will receive an additional $2 to buy more food.

"It's a misconception that people in poor neighborhoods don't want fresh food," said Yael Lehmann, executive director of the Food Trust.