\n\t\t\t\t\t\tA long-standing staple for fresh food in Sacramento\u2019s Oak Park neighborhood won\u2019t be starting up again in the spring as it has for years. The annual Oak Park Farmers Market is closing for good.The farmers market was formed in 2010 to fill a need in what’s considered one of Sacramento’s “food deserts,” a neighborhood where access to affordable, nutritious foods is limited.Years later, the nonprofit organization Food Literacy Center took over operations to help try to reach more people across the community with fresh fruits and vegetables each Saturday from about April to November.Organizers say they made the difficult decision to close the market based on data.\u201cWe were spending almost $10,000 per market, and reaching only about 40 EBT customers per week,\u201d Food Literacy Center CEO and founder Amber Stott said in a video statement about the market closure. \u201cThat\u2019s a cost of $250 per EBT customer.\u201d Stott said they can reach more food-insecure families with healthy foods through their expansive, hands-on elementary school cooking and nutrition program than they can at the farmers market.\u201cThat program reaches about 100 kids per school, and currently up to 800 kids per week,\u201d said Stott. \u201cWe do this at a cost of $8,000 per school for 10 weeks of programs. That\u2019s just $16 per student per week.\u201dOrganizers also say that despite efforts to bring the Oak Park Farmers Market back to the days when it was thriving, times are different.\u201cThe cost of food is high. Food budgets are very thin. We have struggled to bring customers back to the market, but also farmers. Many farmers have retired, or moved on to different business strategies,\u201d Stott explained. \u201cWithout customers, very few farmers can afford to stay at the market. And without farmers, customers don’t come. It’s a cyclical problem.\u201dAccording to the food literacy center, the decision to close has been communicated with farmers, funders, and to the Oak Park community via town hall meetings and personal visits.Stott also said that the farmers market staff will remain at Food Literacy Center. They’ll be serving in other roles to help reach more students in more elementary schools.”This is not a decision we take lightly,” said Stott. “Our mission is to inspire kids to eat their vegetables. Ensuring that families have access to healthy food is important to us.”See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tSACRAMENTO, Calif. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
A long-standing staple for fresh food in Sacramento\u2019s Oak Park neighborhood won\u2019t be starting up again in the spring as it has for years. The annual Oak Park Farmers Market is closing for good.<\/p>\n
The farmers market was formed in 2010 to fill a need in what’s considered one of Sacramento’s “food deserts,” a neighborhood where access to affordable, nutritious foods is limited.<\/p>\n
Years later, the nonprofit organization Food Literacy Center<\/a> took over operations to help try to reach more people across the community with fresh fruits and vegetables each Saturday from about April to November.<\/p>\n Organizers say they made the difficult decision to close the market based on data.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were spending almost $10,000 per market, and reaching only about 40 EBT customers per week,\u201d Food Literacy Center CEO and founder Amber Stott said in a video statement about the market closure<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s a cost of $250 per EBT customer.\u201d <\/p>\n Stott said they can reach more food-insecure families with healthy foods through their expansive, hands-on elementary school cooking and nutrition program <\/a>than they can at the farmers market.<\/p>\n \u201cThat program reaches about 100 kids per school, and currently up to 800 kids per week,\u201d said Stott. \u201cWe do this at a cost of $8,000 per school for 10 weeks of programs. That\u2019s just $16 per student per week.\u201d<\/p>\n Organizers also say that despite efforts to bring the Oak Park Farmers Market back to the days when it was thriving, times are different.<\/p>\n \u201cThe cost of food is high. Food budgets are very thin. We have struggled to bring customers back to the market, but also farmers. Many farmers have retired, or moved on to different business strategies,\u201d Stott explained. \u201cWithout customers, very few farmers can afford to stay at the market. And without farmers, customers don’t come. It’s a cyclical problem.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the food literacy center, the decision to close has been communicated with farmers, funders, and to the Oak Park community via town hall meetings and personal visits.<\/p>\n Stott also said that the farmers market staff will remain at Food Literacy Center. They’ll be serving in other roles to help reach more students in more elementary schools.<\/p>\n “This is not a decision we take lightly,” said Stott. “Our mission is to inspire kids to eat their vegetables. Ensuring that families have access to healthy food is important to us.”<\/p>\n See more coverage of top California stories here<\/a> | Download our app<\/a> | Subscribe to our morning newsletter<\/a> | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A long-standing staple for fresh food in Sacramento\u2019s Oak Park neighborhood won\u2019t be starting up again in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[4329,25087,1750,6848,68843,14014,23128,30554,3410,5990,68844,68841,121,123,122,68842,13804,430],"class_list":["post-134827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-access","tag-closing","tag-cost","tag-decision","tag-ebt-customer","tag-farmer","tag-farmer-market","tag-healthy-food","tag-kid","tag-market","tag-nutrition-program","tag-oak-park-farmers-market","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news","tag-stott","tag-vegetable","tag-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}