Middle Georgia on the Move!
By Emily Whittington
It can take years to establish the necessary microbes, nematodes and bacteria to enable plants to thrive. Every successful farm and garden has worked hard to get over that threshold.
Middle Georgia is approaching a similar tipping point.
Schools are serving local produce in cafeterias. Non-profits focused on wholesome food are collaborating with each other and boosting support for local farms. Farms and hospitals are cross-pollinating with city-run farmers markets. Extension agents and ag professors from Fort Valley State University are adding their expertise.
And the result is a Middle Georgia local food community more united than ever. While these efforts have been underway for years, the ripple effect of new partnerships has spread throughout Macon, and beyond.
There’s a lot going on in Macon, and at the center of it all is the nonprofit Macon Roots, which teams up with local farmers and organizations in an effort to provide local meat and produce to the residents of Macon.
Macon Roots was founded in 2010 by Mark Vanderhoek (at right in white shirt), director of media relations at Mercer University. While completing his Master of Business Administration at Mercer, he picked up a copy of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and was awakened by how awful the current food system was, and how the market had failed not only farmers and farm animals, but also consumers.
“I was inspired by Kingsolver’s resolution to take control of her family’s food, and I decided to use the skills I learned in my MBA to do something to help my community take control of its food,” says Vanderhoek.
One of Macon Roots’ core missions is to make the food system in the area more equitable. Forbes ranked Macon as the 7th poorest metro area of the country in 2009.
While learning more about the current food system, Mark was struck by its unfairness, which penalizes the poor with unhealthy food. “It is not a coincidence that Macon is both poor and has high rates of diabetes and obesity,” says Vanderhoek. “The current food system subsidizes the ingredients that help to cause diabetes, and the only food accessible to the poor in many instances is that subsidized junk food.”
After realizing the unfairness of the current food system, Mark saw the opportunity to recreate regional food systems that would provide jobs and food security for communities. “I hope that we can one day have thousands of small, profitable, sustainable farms throughout Middle Georgia, creating secure incomes that support families,” he says.
Macon Roots is working to create an urban farm that will serve as a youth training center, which will serve kids in high school who are interested in sustainable agriculture and entrepreneurship.
The success of Macon Roots is obvious to all those involved, and according to Vanderhoek, can be attributed to the partnerships they have established along the way, which includes Georgia Organics, The Bibb County Cooperative Extension, Community Health Works, and Children’s Health Care of Atlanta.
Keep reading, and you’ll see the many ways Macon Roots spreads throughout the middle Georgia good food community.
MULBERRY STREET MARKET
In April 2011, Macon Roots partnered with Community Health Works and the city of Macon to launch the Mulberry Street Market, Macon’s first producer’s only farmers market.
“One of our goals for creating a market downtown was that it is central to all the bus routes in our city, so the market itself is already providing access to healthy food,” says Vanderhoek. The Mulberry Street Market will soon be accepting Electronic Benefit Cards.
“Nearly 40 percent of the residents of Macon are eligible for federal food assistance and the impact of that purchasing power for our farmers and for those eating our famers’ food could be profound, for the health of the economy and our community,” he says.
Since the Mulberry Street Market opened, it has since doubled its vendors. It now provides milk and cheese, as well as two meat vendors and nearly 20 fruit and vegetable farmers.
Find Mulberry Street Market on Facebook here.
Read a Macon Telegraph story on the Mulberry Street Market here.
DAVIS FARMS
One of the strongest and largest vendors at the Mulberry Street Market is Davis Farms, owned by Naomi Davis, who was the first organic farmer in Middle Georgia. Davis works around the clock making sure that her produce is available to the residents of Macon every Wednesday.
In fact, the produce that Davis Farms provides is less than 48 hours old by the time it reaches consumers. The market has shown an overwhelmingly positive response from the residents of Macon. According to Davis, an average of about 150 people show up every Wednesday. When asked about its success, Davis replied “I think that it’s finally the right formula: the right weather, the right day, the right time, the right location, and the right customers.”
Davis Farms, located about 30 miles southwest of Macon, is family owned and operates a growing CSA program. Its 25 acres of land have been in the family since the late 1800’s, with two acres cultivating a variety of small vegetables and strawberries. The farm adheres to organic standards and practices an environmentally sustainable operation.
“We have a ‘no till’ agricultural concept, which means if you’re not going to use the soil, then you shouldn’t till it. The best way to preserve the soil is by mulching, which is what nature does on its own,” says Davis. “We produce as much as we can on the farm, so if a fence breaks on the property, I don’t go out and buy a new one. I look around and see what I can find on the property first.”
Davis Farms not only produces food; it is also educates the public. Digging Roots Educational Farm, founded by Davis in December 2009, is a nonprofit organization that educates the public about growing sustainable food through a variety of workshops, with topics including strawberry cultivation, cheese making, bread baking, canning, and fermentation.
The educational component started with a canning workshop, which was first offered in 2005. After seeing that people were really interested, Davis moved the workshop from her home in Roberta to Macon because of a better location that was able to accommodate more people.
The workshops are seasonal and each one lasts about three hours, where attendees actively participate in what it is that’s being taught.
“The workshops teach anything dealing with sustainability and educating the community. People need to realize that they don’t have to visit a Wal-Mart every day. Living a sustainable life is really about living a simple life,” says Davis. There are also workshops for children with topics ranging from “How to Boil an Egg” to “being safe in the kitchen.”
"We really just want to teach kids all about the things that have been lost in our society,” Davis says.
COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKS
Recent studies of Bibb, Crawford, Houston, Jones, Monroe, Peach, and Twiggs county have found that health status in the region is getting progressively worse.
The uninsured and rural residents in the region are among the state's most medically underserved and disadvantaged. Poor health status and the prevalence of chronic disease, combined with barriers to accessing healthcare, create a growing population of rural Georgians who are also becoming more ill. Morbidity and mortality due to chronic disease are higher for the uninsured, and those rates increase as economic status and access to care decrease.
Community Health Works, a non-profit dedicated to improving personal healthcare for the uninsured, works throughout 25 Middle Georgia counties improve access to care, provide health education and outreach, improve the capacity of the area’s local health care system, and provide prescription coverage assistance to patients who cannot afford medication for chronic disease management.
Total, Community Health Works covers 2,233 square miles in which more than 350,000 people reside.
“In Macon, the estimated rate of childhood obesity is 36 percent,” Greg Dent, president and CEO of Community Health Works, told the Macon Telegraph recently. “It’s critical that we recognize this public health crisis and begin offering solutions today.”
One of those solutions is an initiative aimed at “helping families be healthier” called Strong4Life, which Community Health Works developed through a partnership with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. The kickoff event called, Strong4Life Unplugged, held on May 14, centered on the four pillars of the Strong4Life program: nutrition, activity, support and fun — giving families a chance to unplug the TV and take their children outside for fun.
Community Health Works and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta are exploring operating a roving produce truck that would offer fruits and vegetables, including some locally grown food, in neighborhoods with little access to healthy foods.
The partnership has also spread to the Bibb County School System, which recently served local strawberries from nearby Elliott Farms.
The local NBC station covered the event, which you can see here: Bibb County Schools Bring Local Farms to the Cafeteria.
Dr. Cleta Long, the nutrition director for Bibb County and the president elect of the Georgia School Nutrition Association, http://www.gsfsa.com/ has begun initiating farm to school programs throughout the school system.
Read a Georgia Organics interview with Dr. Long here.
Tripp Eldridge works as the food access coordinator for Community Health Works, a partner of Macon Roots, and was instrumental in the establishment of the Mulberry Street Market. Dent, the president and CEO of Community Health Works, has also been a great supporter of the organization.
“In the next year, I hope we see the awakening to the possibilities of local food, within our elected leadership as well as our community leadership,” says Vanderhoek. “I firmly believe that the future of all communities, not just Macon’s, is going to be predicated on our ability to create relationships, networks and businesses that support farmers, their land, and the eaters they serve.”
The dream team of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Community Health Works, Bibb County schools, and Macon Roots has made an amazing amount of progress in less than two years.
Their accomplishments and the momentum they’ve built highlight the crucial role collaboration plays in the success of Georgia’s good food movement.
FORT VALLEY
There can be no summation of the local food movement in Georgia without Fort Valley State University, one of the state’s foremost agriculture research and education hubs.
For starters, Fort Valley State University is home to Jerald Larson and Dr. James Brown, two professors who are experts on organic production methods, and proponents of their health benefits.
Larson is considered to be the foremost expert in the state on organic fruit production.
He’s published dozens of articles on organic production, including a how-to series on blackberries, strawberries,
muscadines, and figs.
Dr. Brown currently serves as a Georgia Organics board member and has authored several research papers on improving plant growth and production organically.
In addition, Fort Valley received a grant of just under $100,000 in 2010 to build a permanent structure for the city’s farmers market. The structure, completed in May, 2010, is 67 ft. long and 15 ft. long, and has sinks for produce washing, bathrooms, ceiling fans, and electrical outlets.
There are 45 listed vendors that sell from 8 a.m. – 1 p.m. on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. It’s located in the parking lot in front of Fred’s, just off of U.S. 341.
WARNER ROBBINS
The International City Farmers' Market in Warner Robbins, 20 miles south of Macon, features 17 vendors, including farmers, bakers and local restaurant owners. It’s open Thursdays, 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., at the corner of Watson Blvd and Davis Drive.
Read a news article about the International City Farmers’ Market here and find the market on Facebook here.
PERRY
Perry, located about 30 miles south of Macon on I-75, has its own downtown farmers market, too. Neighbors intermingle there every Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon, buying produce, eggs, meats and other foods from about 30 rotating vendors.
The market, operated by the city, has been a model for five other community markets across Georgia. Learn more about the Perry farmers market here.##