The Downtown Growers Market benefits not only the community at large, but also the University, by providing work opportunities for UNM students.
“A number of our students both past and present are connected with the market in a variety of ways,” said Jennifer Rowland, UNM sustainability studies lecturer and local food systems outreach coordinator.
The market helps unite local farmers to educate about the importance of buying local, and many students have interned or volunteered at local farms, selling directly to the community on a weekly basis. This allows them to connect with the Albuquerque on a new level, she said.
Rowland said growers from the market have taken classes with the UNM Sustainability Studies Program, and have formed an unofficial partnership with UNM and the market.
Market Director Robert Hoberg will use a $10,000 grant awarded to them for more educational and community outreach initiatives .
“We have to help people recognize why it’s important and encourage them to see how it affects their quality of life,” Hoberg said
The grant is designed to help nonprofit organizations involved in stimulating local economic activity, said Jaime Jordan, vice president and director of corporate communications at Dallas Home Loan Bank.
The more money you spend within local markets, the more likely it is to stay in the community, Hoberg said. In supermarkets money is immediately spent on a national scale, and will probably be used outside of New Mexico.
It allows people to become connected to the seasons, and people will start to pay attention to what they are putting in their bodies, he said.
Agricultural Coordinator and Farm Manager Joseph Alfaro has worked with his family farm for many years growing squash, carrots, and turnips.
“It’s not for everybody and it takes a special person to do the work. It makes you farmer, a teacher, a father -- it teaches you something different every day,” he said.
Hoberg said the reason people go to supermarkets is one of convenience; because it is cheaper. People can take their electronic benefit transfer cards -- which holds their welfare benefits provided by the state -- to the market and double their funds through a program called double up food bucks.
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“If they’ve got $5 and go to a local growers market they get matched $5 and can spend more money on fresh local produce,” Rowland said.
Anyone can use the EBT matching program, and the Downtown Growers Market is the biggest market that provides matching. It gives a leg up to local food while making the case that people should buy more locally. The market mainly uses solar power to run electrical equipment. With the new grant, organizers hope to start a composting project as well.
They will support the entrepreneurship of the food market, but will need to find some extra funding, Hoberg said.
Main Street has a space that is leased and, in time, they will develop a kitchen that provides job training and education in using local abundance, Hoberg said.
Farmers can take their leftover food from the market and teach people to cook and take it with them, he said, adding that it’s is a shame that a lot of produce will go to waste because there is not an adequate system set up to use the leftover food.
“Appreciate things for when they are here, and let them go at the end of the season. Then they will be that much more delicious when they come back,” Hoberg said.
