By Lornet Turnbull
Special to The Medium
A new farmer’s market will sprout up next month on Kent’s East Hill, where some residents say fresh, healthy food options have grown increasingly out of their reach.
The Kent East Hill Farmers Market, which will feature produce by South King County farmers when it opens May 13, is a project of Living Well Kent (LWK), a grassroots collaborative led almost exclusively by immigrants, refugees and people of color.
Community led and community driven, LWK got its start through a 2014 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant aimed at improving health and wellness by addressing risk factors such as poor nutrition and inactivity.
LWK has created a platform to engage residents on issues around active and healthy living, in some cases in their own languages and often in ways that are culturally familiar to them.
“Accessibility to healthy foods is not equitable to all communities because of a lack of income, transportation, lack of knowing where things are if you are an immigrant or new to this country,” said Shamso Issak, an organizational development consultant and LWK’s executive director.
“From the beginning, one of our goals was to have everyone in our community gain access to healthy foods,” added Issak.
The group focuses on systems change that gets at the root of health inequities. And it has mobilized hundreds of partners – individuals, businesses, nonprofits, government agencies – across a range of initiatives and programs to help address those disparities.
Its 15-member Food Policy Council, for example, is exploring transportation options to help residents without cars get to grocery stores, the farmers market and other places where they can buy fresh, healthy foods. And it is collaborating with the YMCA to arrange swim times for women at a new facility under construction in Kent.
Through its Eat Smart Champions program, residents learn how to read nutrition labels, interpret ingredient lists and save money by checking unit costs on products. And in addition to competing, participants in its monthly healthy cooking contests, make presentations on how cultural and other dishes can be made in a healthy, affordable way.
In her State of the City address this month, Kent Mayor Suzette Cooke recognized the group for its efforts. At the May 2 city council meeting, the mayor will sign a proclamation, declaring May 13, the kickoff date for East Hill’s Farmers Market, as Kent Healthy Eating Day.
“Our vision forward is to leverage the momentum and grow the Living Well Kent experience, while continuing to build partnerships,” said Issak.
Grassroots beginning
Living Well Kent was started as a small group of local residents, including Issak, who had been meeting periodically to discuss barriers to resources facing immigrants, refugees and other low-income residents.
They recognized that changes occurring across South King County had drastically shifted the region’s demographics.
Skyrocketing housing costs were driving many families and people of color out of Seattle and into less expensive communities in the south. As a result, the cities of Kent, as well as Renton, Federal Way, Tukwila and SeaTac are now home to more people of color than White people.
In the fall of 2014, the small group was awarded a grant from the CDC’s Partnerships to Improve Community Health (PICH) program, which aims to address health disparities.
Seattle-King County Department of Public Health distributed the funds to scores of organizations, including government agencies, schools and nonprofits, with the goal of creating opportunities for more physical activity and healthy living, among other factors, particularly in South King County.
Blishda Lacet, program manager for the Healthy Eating Active Living section of public health, said the focus on South King County was deliberate, given the health disparities that exist there. LWK also benefited from a King County/Seattle Foundation Communities of Opportunity grant designed to address racial and geographical inequities.
“They’ve done a lot of work reaching out to partners in Kent and beyond and learning from other communities,” Lacet said.
“It’s a good example of a community coming together, identifying both their challenges and strengths and moving forward to improve the lives of residents, especially those impacted by health inequities,” she added.”
Where to begin
To help it fully understand the community’s needs, LWK’s first major project was a series of targeted, multi-language focus groups. The idea, Issak said, was to learn how different communities defined “healthy foods’’ and how they accessed such foods.
Focus group participants expressed feelings of food insecurity; they talked about a scarcity of accessible grocery stores, especially for those dependent on public transportation. And some immigrants said existing supermarkets didn’t offer enough grocery options from their culture.
The findings were so inconsistent with the county’s own health assessment for Kent that LWK conducted its own last year. It found fewer grocery stores than were indicated in the county data. Additionally, the distance residents say they traveled to find healthy food retailers suggested the existence of a food desert, at least around East Hill, Issak said.
“That’s something the county data didn’t show,” she said.
The assessment has become the foundation for establishing program priorities for the organization. The Food Policy Council used it to develop a strategic plan for addressing the community’s needs around accessing healthy, affordable foods and the basis for creating the farmers market.
The council also collaborates with agencies and other organizations throughout the county to influence policies that directly affect the health of Kent residents.
“This has resulted in a diverse core group of people working together, in spite of differences in language, race, ethnicity or other differences,” Issak said.
One recommendation was to partner with Kent Public Schools to introduce culturally diverse meals into the school lunch program, similar to what’s available in other districts.
But the plan went awry when some parents mischaracterized what the group was trying to do, and began accusing the district of wanting to introduce halal foods (food prepared in accordance of Islamic law) into its schools.
While the group has backed off for now, it continues to collaborate with the district, including the production of a Healthy Food Cooking Contest for youth, scheduled for April 19.
Ten student competitors have been given $35 to purchase local, fresh ingredients. The students will have to make a public presentation, explaining the dish, where they bought the ingredients and why the dish is healthy.
Growing a farmers’ market
But perhaps the Food Policy Council’s most significant recommendation in addressing shortcomings exposed by the assessment was establishment of the East Hill Farmers Market.
In addition to healthy and local food options, the market, scheduled to run monthly through the fall, will also feature cultural music and family activities, Issak said. It is planned for 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Morrill Meadows Park in Kent.
The organization has partnered with the mobile farm stand, Roots of All Roads (ROAR) to help connect with local growers and vendors in South King County. And it is getting help from the county to train and prepare co-op members to operate the market after this first year.
“We are building capacity in the community to do this,” she said of the co-op. “We will be the backbone support…”
While the Kent Lions Club has operated a farmers’ market in Kent for several years, Issak said LWK’s assessment found that many low-income people on East Hill and West Hill don’t often use it because they don’t find it accessible or affordable.
“If they lack their own transportation, there’s no way for them to get there,” Issak said.
She said the organization plans to implement a number of programs to assist low-income residents at the Kent East Hill Farmers Market, including Fresh Bucks and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Under Fresh Bucks, an incentive started five years ago by Seattle’s Office of Sustainability and Environment and the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance, every food stamp dollar spent at a farmers market or food stand is matched up to $10 a day.
Vendors won’t pay a fee to set up stalls but will be encouraged to offer donations, she said.
