Joyce Stafford, a secretary in Kaiser’s genetics department in Oakland, is one of the 11,500 subscribers to Maring’s blog. Between following his recipes, taking regular walks around nearby Lake Merritt with her colleagues, and keeping healthy snacks in her office, she says she’s dropped 55 pounds. “We love this farmers market,” she says. “A lot of us come and taste-test the fruits at lunchtime. It’s like a little outing.”

 

But many don’t have such luxuries. In many neighborhoods in the United States, processed foods are easier and cheaper to come by than the healthy stuff. That reality is in part why Kaiser in July partnered with a handful of agencies and community groups to launch a farmers market at a park in the Watts district of Los Angeles. Before the opening, there were precious few places to get fresh produce in this lower-income area, according to an Occidental College study. Most of the people living in this part of South Central Los Angeles are Latino or black, two groups prone to obesity, heart disease, and diabetes.

 

“It’s pretty dismal in the community of Watts, especially if you don’t have private transportation,” says Joanne Robinson, director of the Kaiser Permanente Watts Counseling and Learning Center. “There’s one full-service grocery store, and the produce isn’t always the freshest. There are a handful of pushcart produce sellers. Balance that with the 50 fast-food places and 39 liquor stores in the area.” Instead of placing a market a few miles away at a Kaiser hospital, the HMO partnered with community groups to bring a market to a popular park in Watts. Robinson says they recognized the need to give neighbors fresh choices. The market now occurs once a week at Ted Watkins Park.

 

“Making a change in what you eat and what you prepare doesn’t come easy,” Robinson says. To help provide some inspiration, Kaiser and its partners have brought in cooking demonstrators ready with recipes to appeal to African-American and Latino shoppers. “There’s this woman called the Seed Lady of Watts who made tacos out of beet greens and kale,” Robinson says. “All the kids and parents were gobbling them up.”

 

Robinson recognizes that it will take time for the Watts market to build a following, but it’s worth it. “We’re hoping this exposure to healthier options will increase people’s demand for better food,” she says. “We want everyone to have the same nutritional opportunities as people in more affluent areas, to have the expectation of better and not just settling.”

(Click here to view a companion photo essay)

 

Teresa Moore is an assistant professor of media studies at the University of San Francisco. She writes about health and race.