Park City Harvest Farm Stand locations in Bridgeport will soon reopen for the season and Wholesome Wave’s Double Value Coupon Program for SNAP/EBT and WIC recipients is once again being offered. Under this program, $10 in benefits equals $20 in fresh, CT-grown,  fruits and vegetables! The markets also accept seniors farmers market checks and cash.

Summer 2011 locations:

• Tuesdays, 11:30 – 3:00 at St. Vincent’s Medical Center, 2800 Main Street, opens June 28
• Wednesdays, 10:00 – 2:00: Bridgeport Health Department, 752 East Main Street, begins July 6
• Tuesdays, 10 am-2 pm, Bank Street at McLevy Green, opens July 5

Park City Harvest is a project of Wholesome Wave  and the Healthy Bridgeport Alliance. There is free parking in both locations, and the farm stands will be open rain or shine. The 2011 farm stand season marks the third year that Wholesome Wave’s Double Value Coupon Program will be available at Bridgeport markets.

For more information call (203)576-8046 or visit parkcityharvest.org.

On the sweltering hot morning of Wednesday, August 4, Wholesome Wave Founder and CEO Michel Nischan, Bridgeport’s Mayor Bill Finch and Bill Quinn, Acting Director of the Department of Health and Social Services celebrated the return of the Park City Harvest farm stand at the Bridgeport Health Department with guests and the supplier of the produce, farmer Nelson Cecarelli of Cecarelli Farm in Northford, CT. The market was begun last year and is one of two Park City Harvest farm stands operating this year; the other is located at St. Vincent’s Hospital.

Guests waited in line under a tent to make their purchases and others rested at picnic tables decorated with colorful balloons in expectation of the Mayor's arrival.

Large numbers of residents showed up, some bused in from area senior centers, to purchase fresh, healthy, locally grown produce and fruit that is affordable. Thanks to a generous grant provided by an anonymous donor advised fund at the Fairfield County Community Foundation, anyone purchasing fresh fruit and vegetables at the farm stand with  food stamp SNAP/EBT benefits, WIC farmers market checks, senior WIC farmers market checks, cash and WIC cash value vouchers automatically has their value doubled. The Wholesome Wave Double Value Coupon Program has proven to be so effective that it now operates in 20 states nationwide.

Cecarelli Farms brought beautiful produce including a wide variety of peppers plus delicious plums.

During his speech Mayor Bill Finch underscored the importance of the Park City Harvest farm stands to the city. “We’re watering a food desert” and “getting good food to our people. Connecticut has neglected our cities and plowed under our fields and this is turning that around.” The Mayor cited his BGreen 2020 sustainability initiative and identified the market as part of his “vision for the future.” He was careful to thank all the people and organizations who collaborated on the initiative and called Michel Nischan “a great guy who’s doing great things for our people.” He even thanked the guests and received cheers when he announced “The more people who show up at events like this, the more politicians in other parts of the state and country will pay attention.”

According to a press release issued by Wholesome Wave:

Bridgeport farm stands run every Tuesday at the St. Vincent’s Medical Center on 2800 Main Street from 12:00pm to 5:00pm and every Wednesday at the Bridgeport Health Department on 752 East Main Street from 9:30am to 2:00pm. There is free parking in both locations, and the farm stands will be open rain or shine. Cecarelli Farm will serve as farm stand manager for both sites this year.  The 2010 farm stand season marks the second year that Wholesome Wave’s Double Value Coupon Program will be available at these two Bridgeport markets.

For more information call (203)576-8046 or visit parkcityharvest.org.

Park City Harvest, a project of the Wholesome Wave Foundation and the Healthy Bridgeport Alliance, is bringing healthy, farm-fresh food to the Bridgeport community.

As one of Wholesome Wave Foundation’s core programs under the “Nourishing Neighborhoods” campaign umbrella,  created by chef and sustainable food advocate Michel Nischan and Wholesome Wave Chairman Gus Schumacher, the Neighborhood Farm Stand Program brings farm stands deep within neighborhoods of underserved Bridgeport, Connecticut communities three days a week. The Park City Harvest farm stand pilot program, supported by the Double Value Coupon Program, sells healthy, locally grown produce from Connecticut farmers. Consumers have three locations to choose from:

• Wed. – Bridgeport Health Department, 752 East Main Street, 10-7
• Thurs. -Marina Village, Columbia Street and Ridge Avenue, 10-3
• Fri. – St. Vincent’s Medical Center, 2800 Main Street, 10-7

This “Nourishing Neighborhoods” program is a five-fold stimulus to:

1. create fresh produce availability in “food deserts”
2. develop local jobs to manage neighborhood “market” stands
3. improve well-being by offering healthier food choices to vulnerable families
4. provide income support to the farmers selling in these neighborhoods
5. serve as a solid investment in reducing future health care costs by decreasing the growing diabetes and obesity problem.

Market Box Nutrition Program

Launched at the Norwalk Community Health Center (NCHC) as another one of Wholesome Wave Foundation’s “Nourishing Neighborhoods” core programs, the Market Box Nutrition Program purchases surplus fruits and vegetables from the Westport farmers’ market, pack the produce into half-bushel boxes, then deliver the boxes at an affordable and subsidized cost to families that have little access to fresh food. Each box, a $20-25 value, may be purchased for $6 in Food Stamps or Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Farmers Market Nutrition vouchers. The program benefits families that want to purchase fresh, locally grown produce but do not have access to transportation or the economic means to shop at farmers’ markets.