Sponsor Farm Share Registration Now Open!

Bowdoin Street Health Center and The Food Project are partnering up yet again to offer health center staff as well as their counterparts at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and other Longwood Medical Area facilities the chance to help sponsor the Farm to Family program.

The sponsorship program, now entering its third year, has been extremely successful.  In 2011, staff from the Longwood community purchased 82 shares which helped to distribute over $13,000 in weekly boxes of farm-fresh produce to families in the Bowdoin/Geneva community.

Shopping Matters Kicks Off with A Bang!

Back in December, we were awarded a mini-grant from Cooking Matters – a nationally-recognized program that empowers families with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to prepare healthy and affordable meals – to provide hourlong tours of the corner stores participating in our Healthy Corner Store Initiative to patients of the health center and residents of the Bowdoin Geneva community.

100 Days ’til the Market Opens

Today is the first day of spring, not only that but it marks just 100 days remaining until the Bowdoin Geneva Farmers’ Market opens in full force!  Celebrate spring today by marking your calendar:

HEALTHY SUMMER KICK-OFF
Thursday, June 28th, 2012  •  3-6:30pm
230 Bowdoin Street, Dorchester
Continuing every THURSDAY thru October

Opening day will feature our three regular vendors:

• City Harvest – Trustees of Reservations (Canton, MA): diverse array of produce grown and sold by youth
• Heavens Harvest Farm (New Braintree, MA): organic produce, jams, bread, eggs, cheese, and more
• Red’s Best (Boston, MA): fresh-caught fish and seafood from small-scale local fishermen

In addition, Ward’s Berry Farm will be joining us as a guest vendor for the day rounding things out with even more fresh fruit and vegetable offerings.

We will be accepting all forms of payment this year: cash, credit/debit cards, EBT/SNAP*, and WIC/Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Coupons.  (Checks accepted at the discretion of the vendor).

*Again this year, the Bowdoin Geneva market will be participating in the Boston Bounty Bucks program, allowing customers paying with their EBT card to double their dollar up to $20!

Of course we’ll also have lots of kids’ activities, music and more.  So save the date!  100 days from today.  RSVP on Facebook.  See you at the market!

Healthy Corner Store Challenge #2

The results are in!  We’ve completed another challenge to create healthy and delicious meals from the ingredients right here in Bowdoin Geneva’s own Healthy Corner Stores.  This time, we’ve traveled down to Sobrino Market at 416 Geneva Ave to transform that flimsy fast-food taco into something tasty, hearty, and (best of all) simple!

Read all the details including the recipe, price breakdown, and side-by-side nutrition information for our healthy Roasted Corn and Black Bean Soft Tacos.

Meet the Vendor: Ward’s Berry Farm

Last week, I had the pleasure of visiting with Jim Ward and Peg Ventresco of Ward’s Berry Farm in Sharon, MA.  Ward’s has been a long and committed partner of healthy food access in the Bowdoin Geneva neighborhood and they’re gearing up for another great year. 

The greenhouse tables are covered with trays of seedlings, touting the coming of spring – meanwhile the fields were covered in a light dusting of snow thanks to last week’s gentle showers.  There’s an undertone of unbridled excitement in Jim’s voice, like most of the farmers’ I’ve been talking to these last few weeks, that the off-season is about to end and the adrenaline rush that powers farmers through their incredible work is about to take hold.  March is certainly an invigorating time.

Ward’s will be partnering with us again this season to provide the sponsor shares for our Farm to Family program, allowing us to distribute low-cost farmshares in Bowdoin Geneva.  Each Wednesday throughout the season, they will be dropping of bountiful boxes packed full of farm-fresh produce for staff at the health center and at various hospitals in the Longwood Medical Area.  While in Longwood, Ward’s sets up each week to sell additional produce at an on-site farmstand in the Kirkland parking lot of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (330 Brookline Ave.).

They will also be joining us as a guest vendor at the opening day of Bowdoin Geneva Farmers’ Market for our Healthy Summer Kickoff Event on June 28th and at a few other markets over the course of the season.  Stay tuned for more details!