 | One of Charles Alvarez' favorite responsibilities while working for CitySeed was to lend a hand at local farmers' markets. Here, he is pictured (in yellow) at the downtown market near City Hall. |
Student helps promote local,
sustainable agriculture
Yale sophomore Charles Alvarez has long been interested in healthy eating, but after spending the summer in New Haven as a President's Public Service Fellow, he's become ever more aware of the connection between affordable, locally grown food and community well-being.
Alvarez was one of 36 Yale students who received President's Public Service Fellowships this summer to work in non-profit community agencies in New Haven (see related story). As such, he spent the school break working for CitySeed, an organization devoted to providing Elm City-area residents with healthy, Connecticut-grown food.
Alvarez divided his time at CitySeed by helping out at the farmers' markets in Wooster Square and in downtown New Haven; working on CitySeed's website and other publicity materials such as newsletters and advertising; interviewing farmers about their growing practices; and working on a project to promote Connecticut farmers' markets statewide. One part of the latter involved encouraging coordinators of farmers' markets to take part in an advertising initiative that would allow farmers' recipes to be featured weekly on the "Food Schmooze" segment of WNPR radio's "The Faith Middleton Show."
Besides those duties, the Yale student helped create informational and educational materials for members of the newly formed New Haven Food Policy Council, administered by CitySeed, which is designed to bring together community leaders to create positive change in the local food system.
Alvarez, who hails from New York City, says he chose to stay in New Haven because he wanted to connect with the local community in a way that he couldn't during his busy freshman year. He was likewise supportive of the mission of CitySeed, which is also engaged in policy initiatives and other efforts aimed at building community through the promotion of local, sustainable agriculture.
"I was interested in being a vegetarian from the time I was in kindergarten," recalls the Yale student, who was fully vegetarian by the third grade. "I became vegan in 10th grade. While my family came to respect my choices, I had to do my own food shopping, and was a regular at farm markets in New York City's Union Square and East Village."
Alvarez says he enjoyed the experience at the markets.
"I like going every week and having a connection with the farmers, who come to know your name," he says. "I also like knowing that the food is locally grown and organic, and that, by buying local, organic produce, I'm not contributing much to global warming when I'm shopping. Also, one of the best things about farmers' markets is the sense of community they create."
At CitySeed, one of Alvarez' jobs was to assist in the development of a campaign aimed at city residents who receive Electronic Benefit Transfer food stamps to inform them about the farmers' markets and make them aware that they can use their food stamps there. (The CitySeed-sponsored farmers' markets are the first in the state to accept food stamps, and CitySeed hopes to expand the markets' customers to include greater numbers of people who receive the benefit.) Alvarez also helped keep records on the numbers of local residents who were using food stamps to buy food at the farmers' markets. He was particularly pleased to discover that increasing numbers of city residents are going there to buy fresh produce -- by mid-summer, he says, the markets had collected in food stamps about two-thirds of the total food stamps collected during the entire season last year.
"We are happy that the word is getting out, and that people are excited about using their food stamps at the market," Alvarez comments.
Supporting local farmers is also important to the Yale sophomore. Over the summer, he learned from CitySeed's founder and executive director Jennifer McTiernan H. -- a 1999 Yale College graduate -- that from 1999 to 2002, Connecticut lost the greatest percentage of farmland of any state in the country.
"The farmers who sell at our markets are typically very well-educated people who really care about sustainable agriculture and about connecting with the community," says Alvarez. "I think that's really admirable. They have small farms, and the markets are their main venue for sustaining their livelihood."
As a President's Public Service Fellow at CitySeed, Alvarez had the opportunity to visit some of the local farms himself, including Barberry Farm in Madison and one run by students and staff at Common Ground High School in New Haven.
"I think that has been one of my favorite experiences of working for CitySeed," says Alvarez, who also enjoyed talking with the shoppers about the produce at the markets.
Alvarez, who is contemplating majoring in either East Asian studies or architecture, says his summer fellowship from Yale allowed him to combine several of his personal interests.
"I really like dealing with environmental issues that also concern economic justice," comments the Yale sophomore, whose extracurricular pursuits have included working with the Student Taskforce for Environmental Partnership (STEP), an organization that encourages sustainable living habits on campus, as well as the Yale Sustainable Food Project and Students for a Free Tibet.
He's now hoping that he can share some of what's he's learned through his work at CitySeed with the Yale campus community.
"My experience has further ignited my interest in helping to teach others in the Yale community about sustainability and has made me think of ways that STEP can have events that bring people together to share food or to make weekly trips to the farmers' markets," Alvarez explains.
While the Yale student further continues to develop ideas for engaging Yale's community in the farmers' markets and issues of sustainability, his experience with CitySeed, he says, has convinced him that he needs to get his own hands dirty in soil once in a while.
"I definitely feel the desire to plant something of my own," says Alvarez, "even if it just means growing a few herbs in pots in my dorm room."
-- By Susan Gonzalez
City Farmers' Markets in New Haven take place on the following days and at these locations: Wednesdays through Oct. 25 -- Downtown, near the corner of Temple and Chapel streets; Thursdays through Oct. 26 -- Quinnipiac River Park, corner of Grand Avenue and Front Street in Fair Haven; Saturdays through Dec. 9 -- Russo Park, corner of Chapel Street and DePalma Court in Wooster Square; and Sundays through Oct. 29 -- Edgewood Park, corner of Whalley and West Rock avenues. All produce is grown in Connecticut. The WIC-certified markets, which accept food stamps and credit card transactions, feature organic and pesticide-free foods. For further information, visit www.cityseed.org or send e-mail to info@cityseed.org.
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