NORWICH – Young adults from Onondaga and Madison counties made a trip to Norwich last week in order to learn how the purchase of locally grown and produced foods can impact both the economy and the environment.
“It’s amazing how much we take for granted about our food system,” said Sheila Marshman, the Morrisville State College professor who organized the outing. The experience was part of a six-week Summer Youth Employment Program focused on renewable energy offered through college’s Renewable Energy Training Center with support from Madison County Employment & Training, CNY Works and the Near West Side Initiative.
The program’s 23 participants are all young adults aged 18 to 24. 16 hail from Madison County, with the remaining eight coming from Syracuse’s Near West Side.
On July 22, the group traveled to Chenango County where they made stops at both the Norwich Farmer’s Market and Evan’s Farmhouse Organic Creamery on a quest to learn more about where food comes, as well as the benefits of buying it directly from the people who grow or produce it. They were accompanied by Rebecca Hargrave, who serves as the Community Horticulture and Natural Resources Educator at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chenango County.
“Farmer’s Markets are a great way to connect with local food,” said Hargrave, who in the last six years has helped spearhead several local initiatives designed to link consumers and producers
Buying locally puts money directly in the hands of local producers, she explained, who then in turn use those dollars to support other local businesses. There is also an energy savings, related to the fact that the local products don’t need to travel to markets further afield. And because there is no middle man when buying directly from a producer, the price is often lower than in the grocery store. There are health benefits as well.
“Nutrients in the food are better the closer they are to the farm,” Hargrave said, explaining that fruits and vegetable start to lose those nutrients as soon as they are picked. While they may appear fresh in the produce aisle of a grocery store, they have often traveled a thousand miles or more to reach the consumer.
Students weren’t just at the market to look around; they were there to buy as well. They had been tasked with purchasing what they would need to prepare food for a luncheon the following day.
“This is a good time (to visit the Farmer’s Market), because there should be a lot available,” Hargrave told students as she gave a few recommendations about what they might prepare for the next day’s meal.
To help them in their menu planning, she distributed copies of a farmer’s market calendar, produced with the help of Senator Thomas Libous’ Buy from the Backyard program, which contained recipe suggestions.
Armed with those recipes, the students set out in their small group to purchase their ingredients from the local growers and producers at the farmer’s market. Then, loaded up with fresh fruits, vegetables and baked goods, they headed to Evan’s Farmhouse Creamery. While at the organic dairy, they learned how milk is processed into cheese, yogurt and other products.
According to Bret Burghdurf with the Near West Side Initiative, the program is intended to provide “paid, real-life work experience” to its participants, who receive training to prepare them for future careers. In exchange for their commitment to the program, they are paid a wage of $7.25 per hour. Funding is provided through grants from the NYS Department of Labor and the federal Community-Based Job Training Grant Initiative administered by the US Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration.