Summer ’23 Week 14: Fresh Choice Manchester Update!

Part of our work here at Fresh Start Farms is improving food access in our community through a number of food access programs. Our colleagues Savitri and April are running the Mobile Market this summer which is having great success, and colleague Marta has been continuing to lead the Fresh Choice Manchester Program!

Fresh Choice Manchester makes it feasible for corner stores in the area to sell fresh fruits and vegetables, since many folks have to walk pretty far to get to a grocery store. We added a second cohort of three new stores this May and all three did a great job! Two will be continuing and have had great success so far: TMC Convenience and LaBonne Semence! Torrance Crawford runs TMC on the West Side and is excited to be able to provide fresh produce to customers without needing to buy full cases of items. Esther runs an African market that is stocked with specialty items like spices, salted fish, cassava flour, and so much more!  She loves being able to get items like sawa sawa and amaranth from our Fresh Start Farmers because for many of her customers, it reminds them of their home countries. In total, the Fresh Choice Program has four participating corner stores and we hope to onboard three more in the coming year.

Click on the pictures below to find out more about this week's bounty, featured items, recipes, and more!