Along with bringing people to specialty food stores and vegetable markets, MARTA is now bringing fresh vegetables to people. MARTA introduced the concept of pop-up stands that sell healthy, local produce at MARTA-accessible spots with a successful market that opened last July at the West End station.
That MARTA Fresh Market will be joined by others at the Five Points, College Park and H.E. Holmes stations this fall. Each market will be open from 3-7 p.m. on the following schedule:
West End: Tuesdays through Dec. 6
H.E. Holmes: Wednesdays, Nov. 9-Dec. 7
College Park: Thursdays, Nov. 3-Dec. 8 (closed Thanksgiving)
Five Points: Fridays through Dec. 9 (closed Thanksgiving)
The three new MARTA locations and into-the-winter schedules are just the start of the good news about this enterprise. Here are five other important or intriguing bits about the MARTA vegetable markets outside Atlanta stops:
Each market will welcome community members inside the station but outside the fare gates, so no one needs to pay a fare or ride the MARTA to shop.
All the markets take cash, credit cards and EBT payments, and offer the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program double value program. SNAP participants get a one dollar match for more market purchases for each dollar they spend at the MARTA markets, though limits may apply. The same SNAP prohibitions apply to foods from the MARTA markets as any other grocery: You can't use EBTs to purchase foods sold to be consumed on site, for example.
One of the program collaborators, the South West Atlanta Growers Cooperative, known affectionately as SWAG, grows market produce right in the city. The farmer-based cooperative of urban growers operates out of southwest Atlanta and supplied most of the locally-grown produce for the pilot West End market in 2015.
During this fall's MARTA Fresh Market season SWAG will host cooking demos and farm tours and showcase locally-made value-add products to expand community knowledge of urban growers.
MARTA Fresh Markets need four to six volunteers per shift. Those ages 13 and up are welcome to sign up through the Atlanta Community Food Bank Community Event Registration and Volunteer Information System (CERVIS). Visit acfb.org/volunteer-sign-up and search "markets." Volunteers under age 18 must be accompanied by an adult age 18 or older who stays by their side throughout the shift. For more questions about volunteering, e-mail volunteers@acfb.org.
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