Nothing beets locally grown

Free farmers market comes to add flavor to Art Soup

MAJA LOSINSKA Reporter @RoundupNews

If a warm bowl of soup is good for the proverbial soul, students can now get more holistic care through additional organic offerings.

The Art department on Monday increased its outreach beyond the Art Soup service with a free farmers market. Its purpose is to address and assist food insecure students, according to art professor Monika Ramirez Wee.

“We’re averaging between 4060 students who come and get the soup or produce. We went through the first slow cookers in just 15 minutes,’’ Wee said. Wee is the founder of the Art Soup and Free Farmers Market Idea.

“We unofficially started last semester but now I’m trying to actively publicize it,’’ Wee said.

The Art Soup planted the seed of the actions that can be done to help out Pierce students.

“I’ve noticed, the day the Roundup ran the story about Art Soup, there was an editorial where someone wrote in, ‘Why don’t we have a farmers market on campus?’’’ Wee said.

Brahma Food Pantry didn’t have the capability to take the fresh produce, but when they heard about Art Soup, which started out very small between Wee and the faculty, they committed to provide Wee with all the produce and she was the one to get it out.

“When we make Art Soup, we send our excess products down to the Brahma Pantry and that just gave me an idea, ‘why don’t we put the produce out because we don't use all of it in the soup,’’’ Wee said.

Thanks to the Foodforward organization, Wee doesn’t only provide students with a warm meal, but they are also able to pick up some fresh fruits and vegetables.

Foodforward is a non-profit organization that fights hunger and prevents food waste by helping people in need and rescuing the excess produce.

They work with public orchards and LA farmers markets who have excess produce or food. Instead of it going to landfill or be thrown out, they try to divert it to people who need it.

As stated by Foodforward “According to the NRDC, up to 40% of food in the United States is wasted. At the same time, 1 in 9 Californians lacks adequate access to food.”

Wee said Foodforward originally started by the artist Rick Nahmias in Los Angeles.

“It was started to address the fact that a lot of people have fruit trees in their backyards and in particular, the elderly are not able to go pick their harvest,’’ Wee said.

According to Foodforward, “In the last nine years, Food Forward has rescued over 60 million pounds (240 million servings) of fresh local produce.”

Wee doesn’t know what glean they’re going to get each time, but it’s usually the reflection of whatever is currently in season for the local farmers.

Students wait in line while Christy Caceres (far right) pours herself some of the soup being offered during Art Soup on Sept. 16, 2019, in front of the gallery up on the Art Hill at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, Calif.