It is Wednesday evening in Lansing, Mich., and an oasis of fruits, vegetables, and plants has suddenly sprung up in the midst of the barren concrete of the city’s Eastside. The parking lot of the Allen Neighborhood Center, a parter of Community Voices Ingham County, is alive with the bustle of commerce, as urban residents and rural vendors commingle in the neighborhood’s new farmer’s market.

"Here we understand health broadly—it means access to health care, but also access to safe neighborhoods, jobs and adequate nutrition,” says Melany Mack, of Community Voices Ingham County. Moving between the stalls filled with produce and ethnic foods, shoppers of all social and cultural backgrounds eagerly peruse what’s on offer. The mood is convivial, and music is playing in the background. Fresh green plants and vegetables fill the shoppers’ bags.

A year ago, the picture here was bleak. There were no opportunities to purchase fresh produce. Many residents, who could not afford a vehicle and who found it awkward to negotiate the public transport system with unwieldy grocery bags, were purchasing all of their groceries at the local party store. One researcher from Michigan State University, who was commissioned to do a spatial analysis on access to nutrition in the area, called the neighborhood “a food desert.”

The Allen Neighborhood Center and Community Voices Ingham County had already realized that promoting good health in the community went well beyond simply providing residents with a Medicaid card. The Center’s Health Team began to take a closer look at food issues in the community. In the course of canvassing the neighborhood, they incorporated questions based on U.S. Department of Agriculture measures into their survey about food availability.

The results were shocking. Twenty-nine percent of residents were food insecure, meaning that at some time in the last 12 months they were not able to access a sufficient diet for financial reasons. This rate is more than double the national average of 11 percent food insecurity. Correcting this problem was a knotty issue and would require connecting the problems of nutritional deficiency, poverty, and lack of access to transportation.

The Center found a way to, “address the access issues of residents and the marketing challenges of farmers,” says the Center’s Director Joan Nelson. The Center’s workers looked at the broad issues surrounding both their immediate community and communities further a field. Urban residents lacked local food resources, small organic farmers on the edge of town were starving for untapped markets. The opportunity for a mutually beneficial relationship was clear. The Center asked the farmers to travel the relatively short distance into the city to sell their wares to Eastside residents. The transportation barrier to nutrition was erased for city residents, while their rural counterparts had a market virtually without competition.

The first run of markets was held from August to October of last year, every Wednesday night from 3:30 to 6:30. A handful of farmers brought organic fruits, vegetables, eggs, and plants to vend. Soon, local ethnic restaurants set up stalls to sample unique dishes and encourage people to stop by their businesses for more. The market turned out to be extremely successful, with attendance never dropping below 130 people.

Part of the initiative’s success lay in its commitment to engaging all of the parties involved. The farmers, food vendors, and urban residents routinely meet at a Food Advisory meeting, where they discuss issues and present different viewpoints on various aspects of the program. This open input process empowers participants and allows the program to remain taed to local needs.

The last season closed with a Harvest Festival. Special activities promoted a variety of health activities, which extended beyond the realm of nutrition; for example, pumpkins were given to the first 100 people who declared their homes were smoke-free and were willing to display a sticker in their window.

The success of the initiative was publicly recognized, when the Farmer’s Market won the Award for Cooperation for Regional Excellence in Social and Community Services. Even without an award, however, the success would have been clear: 1,340 Eastside residents participated in the first year alone.

The program is “on the rise,” says Nelson. This year, it has grown to include eight farmers, and four more will be added before the end of June. The market has also been given permission to accept food stamps. On the first night this year, there were 230 people—remarkable, considering that the lack of vegetation at this time of the year in Michigan means the amount of produce is limited. But even without a lot of produce, people are buying plants to plant in their gardens, creating the opportunity for them to cultivate their own vegetables over the summer. Additionally, this year the program has been expanded to five months.

One difficulty that remains is the gap in access created by the winter months.  This fall, the Allen Neighborhood Center plans to gear up for the gap with presentations on conservation techniques, such as canning

The next step in the process is to expand access through greater food self-reliance, by further promoting backyard gardens and an urban greenhouse. The urban greenhouse would provide produce year round, and could be tended and marketed by local youth, giving them the opportunity to develop agricultural and entrepreneurial skills.  The Center also plans on collaborating with the “Garden Project,” which will provide roto-tilling, seed, fertilizer, and instructions on cultivating backyard gardens.

Meanwhile, the Health Team is finding remarkable ways to link other health initiatives to the market. While offering mammograms, for example, they provided coupons for walnuts and flaxseed (two key foods which help prevent breast cancer) for the farmer’s market.

Click here to learn more about the Allen Neighborhood Center's farmer's market.

Find out how the Allen Neighborhood Center got permission to accept food stamps.