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Empowering kids: Program promotes local produce

FAIRMONT — Adults understand the joy of biting into vegetables fresh from the garden, but kids — well, not so much, but Mayo Clinic Health System in Fairmont and Rural Advantage have joined forces to change that. Their joint program, called the Power of Produce, enables children ages 4-12 years to purchase produce at Fairmont’s Farmers Market using free tokens, courtesy of the sponsors.

“The idea is to get kids interested in fresh local produce. It will encourage them to eat more vegetables and instill good healthy eating habits at a young age,” said Linda Meschke, president of the non-profit Rural Advantage.

Dr. Marie Morris, medical director at Fairmont Mayo, echoed the sentiment.

“Empowering children to make good choices now helps to create lifelong habits,” she said. “We are proud to sponsor this summertime program that encourages kids to make healthy food choices.”

The program officially kicks off Saturday at the Fairmont Farmers Market, located in the Five Lakes Centre parking lot. Saturday hours are 9 a.m. to noon. The market also is open from 4-6 p.m. Tuesdays, and the Power of Produce program will continue during market hours through the end of the season.

Rural Advantage maintains a booth to provide a merchant terminal at the market. Meschke explained that vendors do not have the capability to run debit, credit or electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards, which provide food support from the government. Customers can go to the Rural Advantage booth and use their card to purchase tokens which then can be used to buy items from the vendors.

The Rural Advantage booth also is where the kids can collect their tokens.

“The kids need to have a parent or guardian with them,” Meschke said. “They come to our booth and sign in. Then we give them four 50-cent tokens. That’s $2 they can use to buy whatever they want to buy. They get exposed to all these fruits and vegetables that maybe they have never tried, like kohlrabi.”

First-time visitors also receive a green bag in which to carry the vegetables they buy, and Rural Advantage keeps track of who visits their booth and how many times they visit during the Farmers Market season. Past years have tallied up to 75 children who have utilized the produce program.

The young shoppers can accumulate their tokens over several visits to trade for more costly items.

“If they want to buy a jar of strawberry jam, then they may have to save up their tokens to get enough to buy it,” Meschke said.

The Power of Produce program is designed to entice more families to utilize the Farmers Market.

“This is a way to get them there,” Meschke said. “If the kids get enthused, then they will want to come. That will get the parents enthused, and they will want to come too.

This is the program’s third year, and Meschke said it was worked out well.

“We have a lot of interest from the kids, a lot of interest from the parents, and the vendors like it too,” she said. “Some of those kids are getting to be good negotiators with the vendors, and that’s kind of fun for the vendors.

“It’s a win-win-win.”

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