For some individuals, fresh fruits and vegetables are scarce in their neighborhoods or can seem financially out of reach. Luckily, there are a number of programs where I live in the Twin Cities designed to address these issues and make fresh, locally grown foods available and affordable for more people.

The city of Minneapolis, through its Homegrown Minneapolis initiative, has partnered with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) for several local food programs.  One such program is the establishment of mini farmers markets throughout the city, with 4-6 vendors at each location. Over the past two years, 21 mini-markets have sprung up in areas of the city with reduced access to fresh foods.   

Another program makes it easier for food stamp recipients to use their benefits to purchase fresh local foods - six Minneapolis farmers markets have started to accept EBT (electronic benefits transfer) cards from SNAP recipients as payments for fresh fruits and vegetables. 

Second Harvest Heartland, a hunger relief organization, has three separate gleaning operations through its Giving Green initiative to gather fresh foods that may otherwise go to waste and distribute them to food shelves throughout Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Their Food Rescue program collects perishable items from 215 retail grocers; each week during the growing season, they collect thousands of pounds of produce at the Minneapolis Farmers Market; and during late summer and fall, they gather apples from area orchards through their Apple Gleaning program, which has collected over 170 tons of fresh apples for area food shelves in the past three years of operation.

Another organization, the Minnesota Project, gleans fresh fruit from throughout the city for donation to community food shelves via its Fruits of the City program.

It's heartening to see fresh, local foods being made available for everyone.