FoodCares Urban Market Celebrates Launch with Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting at the Boston Public Market
Local Officials Will Gather to Welcome Urban Farm Aggregate to the BPM
On Wednesday, November 1st at 12:30 p.m., the team behind the Boston Public Market (link is external)’s newest vendor, FoodCares Urban Market (link is external), will host a ribbon cutting and grand opening celebration. Helmed by Baraka Community Wellness Founder and prominent local health advocate, Raheem Baraka, the urban farm aggregate sells fruits, vegetables, and value-added products from a variety of Boston-area growers and small businesses.
Wednesday’s grand opening celebration will include a ribbon cutting to officially welcome Baraka’s latest non-profit venture to the BPM, preceded by remarks from some of Boston’s most notable leaders in food policy, including Boston Public Market CEO, Cheryl Cronin; City of Boston Food Access Director, Catalina Lopez-Ospina; Massachusetts Urban Agriculture Coordinator, Rose Arruda; State Representative Chynah Tyler; City of Boston Director of Community Affairs, Anthony Richards, and more.
PHOTO OPP: Remarks by city and state officials, and a ribbon cutting to celebrate the Grand Opening of FoodCares Urban Market. Speakers will include:
- Raheem Baraka, Director of Baraka Community Wellness
- Cheryl Cronin, CEO of the Boston Public Market
- Catalina Lopez-Ospina, City of Boston Food Access Director
- Rose Arruda, Massachusetts Urban Agriculture Coordinator
- Chynah Tyler, Massachusetts State Representative
- Anthony Richards, Boston Director of Community Affairs
- Karen Spiller, Principal of KAS Consulting
- Glynn Lloyd, Director, Business Equality Initiative for Eastern Bank
WHERE: Boston Public Market, 100 Hanover Street, Boston, MA
Last year Baraka and his team successfully launched FoodCaresBOSTON (link is external), a Baraka Community Wellness initiative that provides free, healthy food and educational resources to families and children in low-income communities, specifically within public housing. Since the summer of 2016, the program has distributed 161,882 pounds of healthy food to 2,753 family members, including 1,744 children in need. The Urban Market retail presence at the Boston Public Market supports these food access efforts while simultaneously creating financial opportunities for small local producers.
ABOUT THE BOSTON PUBLIC MARKET:
The Boston Public Market (link is external) is an indoor, year-round marketplace for locally sourced groceries and specialty agricultural products, where residents and visitors can find fresh, seasonal food from Massachusetts and New England. The BPM’s mission is to provide fresh, healthy food to consumers of all income levels, nourish our community, and educate the public about food sources, nutrition, and preparation. The Market houses over 35 local farmers, fishers, and food entrepreneurs (link is external) selling items such as farm fresh produce; meat and poultry; eggs; milk and cheese; fish and shellfish; bread and baked goods; beverages; flowers; and an assortment of specialty and prepared foods. Everything sold at the Market is produced or originates in New England. The Boston Public Market, located at 100 Hanover Street above the Haymarket MBTA station, is currently open 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. Monday – Saturday and 10 a.m. – 8 p.m. on Sundays.
Boston Public Market vendors are proud to accept SNAP/EBT for all eligible market products, and the Market is a participant in the Commonwealth’s Healthy Incentive Program (HIP), which doubles SNAP dollars spent on fruit and vegetable purchases at participating farmers markets and the Boston Public Market.
The Market is a dynamic civic space, educating the public about food sources, nutrition, and preparation. In addition to 40 permanent vendors and a number of rotating short-term “pop-up” vendors, the Boston Public Market includes the KITCHEN (link is external), a 3,200 square foot demonstration kitchen programmed by The Trustees, the Market’s programming partner, with opportunities such as hands-on cooking demos, lectures, family activities, exercise classes, training and community events.
Development of the Boston Public Market is a partnership between the not-for-profit Boston Public Market Association, individual and corporate donors, foundations, the City of Boston, and the project’s seed funder, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Boston Public Market Association developed and operates the Boston Public Market with a public impact mission to support the farmers, fishers, and food entrepreneurs who grow, catch and produce local food, and to nourish our community with food and experiences.
For more information, visit bostonpublicmarket.org (link is external), Facebook (Facebook.com/BostonPublicMarket (link is external)), Twitter (@BosPublicMarket (link is external)), and Instagram (@BostonPublicMarket (link is external)). Follow activity at the Market by using #bostonpublicmarket.
ABOUT BARAKA COMMUNITY WELLNESS:
Baraka Community Wellness (link is external) (BCW) engages, educates and empowers individuals and families in at-risk communities to improve their own health and wellness, and thereby help reduce healthcare costs for everyone. To accomplish this mission, Baraka Community Wellness:
- Provides information and guidelines to help establish and reinforce healthy habits and norms
- Creates and manages community-wide wellness programs tailored to diverse populations
- Designs policies and processes for communities, employers, insurers, and municipalities to reduce risk, enhance health, increase productivity, and reduce health care costs; and
- Generates momentum to help shift the health care sector in particular, and society more generally, toward a culture that values wellness and disease prevention as paramount.
BCW’s integrated program model Healthy Families Healthy Communities directly addresses key social determinants of health, namely: lifestyle and behaviors; food access and education; and environmental factors such as the built environment. Core programs Healthy Moms Healthy Kids, FoodCaresBOSTON, W.e. FIT and Community Cooking Academy are informed by evidence gleaned from the experiences of ow-income families, caregivers and their children who live in low-income neighborhoods, many in subsidized public housing. These populations have the poorest health outcomes of any demographic in America. BCW’s comprehensive suite of programs include fitness education, nutrition education, health coaching and advocacy, and social supports such as improved food access for those experiencing food insecurity and social service advocacy to alleviate domestic stressors that contribute to poorer health outcomes. Participants in BCW’s programs demonstrate improved life skills, greater self-sufficiency and measurably improved health outcomes, and substantially higher quality of life.