“The peaches? I ate them already,” Juan Pagan (pictured) confessed with a grin.
“He ate them both. He didn’t let me have one,” teased his friend, Elsie Torres (at left in photo).
The two pals, both residents at the Casa Otonal elderly home in the Hill, were surveying the bounty of fresh fruit and vegetables inside Pagan’s white bag. Pagan had just bought the bag from two nice ladies from the CitySeed, Inc.Thursday afternoon.
“Pretty good for three dollars,” marveled Pagan. The three-dollar bargain included: two ears of corn, a purple pepper, a green pepper, little eggplants, some garlic, two kinds of tomatoes — and the two peaches.
“Take a picture of his belly. That’s where they are,” came a call from the peanut gallery.
The disappearing peaches were part of a new health-focused program bringing fresh produce to people at risk of poor nutrition. The target area is the Hill neighborhood. The two stops Thursday were Casa Otonal and the Hill Health Center.
People in other neighborhoods already enjoy access to locally grown, crisp produce through CitySeed’s four farmers markets. The markets run weekly in Fair Haven, Edgewood, Wooster Square and downtown.
The food is also distributed through a Community Supported Market program, by which shareholders commit to buying a share of whatever produce might be growing that week at the handful of participating farms. Shareholders pay for the produce early in the season, giving farmers enough capital to seed for a bountiful harvest. The program has been serving workplaces since 2006, as a way to support farmers and make locally grown food available to those who might be too busy to run down to the market during the day.
While the fresh squash and cucumbers were circulating around town, they hadn’t been reaching the Hill. Fair Haven Alderman Joey Rodriguez, who works for the Hill Development Corp, helped CitySeed find its way into the neighborhood.
In July, CitySeed expanded the CSM program to serve two community sites in the Hill. Now a truck arrives every week at Casa Otonal and the Hill Health center, bearing the same shares the workplaces get.
CitySeed offers the food at a subsidized rate to people on federal assistance (WIC and food stamps) as well as people over 65. The idea is to give “nutritionally at-risk community members” better access to fresh produce, according to CitySeed’s Nicole Berube, who’s in charge of the program.
Thursday, as a brisk wind blew beside the Quinnipiac River, Berube (at right in photo) and a crew of workers unloaded farmers’ trucks that had arrived for the Fair Haven farmers’ market. CitySeed staffers sorted the fruit and veg into colorful arrays inside buckets and bags as a crowd gathered, eager for the market to open.
The goods got loaded onto the CitySeed mobile unit. First the truck hit five private clients, including HigherOne and the Wiggin & Dana law firm.
The food was unloaded and distributed to employees.
The income does a lot to keep farmers afloat, said Daren Hall of Hall’s Farm in Windsor. He drives 70 minutes to set up shop at the Fair Haven farmer’s market. Depending on the day, sales can be slow.
“If rains for the market, you lose the day,” Hall said.
It did rain — indeed, it poured — Thursday, but he didn’t lose the day. His tomatoes were happily delivered, sitting on a table in the warmth of Casa Otonal.
They didn’t sit there for long, either.
At Casa Otoñal, seniors have been quick to catch on to the weekly nutritional bargain. A load of 33 bags sold out within an hour. CitySeed staff had to call for backup supplies.
When staff came back, dripping with rain, Sonia Santiago (pictured) was ready. She snatched up three bags.
She planned to cook the corn for her family. Having the food delivered there is a big help, she said, because otherwise she has to take the bus across town to find fresh produce.
“It’s good food,” she said, clutching a purple pepper in her hands.