With food assistance programs faltering during the time of year when people especially want to put food on the table for their families, our fresh produce markets are filling the gap.

The week before Thanksgiving, Venice Family Clinic community members who attended our Free Food Market at the Simms/Mann Health and Wellness Center in Santa Monica took home hefty bags of green beans, squash and other vibrant fruits and vegetables. Hundreds of people waited in line for two to three hours so they could bring fresh food home to their families.

This seasonal produce nourishes our community thanks to our partnership with Food Forward, a local produce distributor, along with the dedicated staff and volunteers who bring our food markets to life.

Making fresh produce more accessible 

For many Venice Family Clinic community members, high quality produce is not available in their local supermarkets. Where it is available, it is expensive – an especially challenging circumstance with food costs rising just as the federal government is cutting back on food assistance programs.

“People are having to make choices, whether they pay a bill, they pay rent or they purchase healthy foods,” says Patty Reyes, food program manager for Venice Family Clinic. “People are having to purchase foods to feed their families that are not as healthy because they are cheaper.  So, Venice Family Clinic has made it a mission to help people access fresh produce.”

Why? Because food is medicine. Venice Family Clinic doctors often recommend that their patients incorporate more fresh produce into their diets to manage chronic conditions and promote overall health. But a growing number of patients can’t afford those foods. So in 2019, Venice Family Clinic decided to start offering produce at free markets so patients would be able to fill those “prescriptions.”

Powering the markets: a partnership with Food Forward that allows us to connect surplus food with people who need it 

Food Forward sources fresh produce from growers, shippers, packers, farmers markets, and other private estates. This abundance becomes available for many reasons, including supply chain fluctuations, shifting market demand, and a range of other factors that make it possible for perfectly good produce to find a home in communities that need it. As much as 35 percent of food grown in the U.S. goes unsold or uneaten, even while one in five people in Los Angeles County struggles to put enough food on the table. But thanks to this partnership, some of that would-be-landfill produce gets a new lease on life, providing life-sustaining nutrition to individuals and families at risk of hunger.

The Clinic and Food Forward began working together in late 2019. Then in 2020, the pandemic spiked the need for food assistance, so together with Food Forward, we expanded operations to offer food markets to community members (not just patients). Over time, we opened markets more frequently in more locations. Today, we have eight food markets per month across five communities (Venice, Santa Monica, Culver City, Inglewood and Gardena), with an additional market once a quarter in Carson. Together, we distribute nearly one million pounds of fresh food every year.

“This partnership is so important,” Reyes says. “We’re able decrease food insecurity at the same time that we’re helping our environment by reducing food waste.”

Filling the fridge, lightening the load 

The produce markets are personal for Reyes. As attendees wait in line, she hears about their lives and families. Regulars tell her about getting their hours cut at work, or how they’re picking up food for elderly neighbors or moms without childcare who can’t make it to the markets themselves. This hits home: Reyes grew up in a family with food insecurity, and, as a mom, later had to balance her own financial priorities with the need to provide healthy food for her family.

“I was a young mom who went through these types of struggles,” Reyes says. “Programs like these would have really helped me.”