The free farmers market provides the Penn community with fresh, accessible produce every Tuesday

Every Tuesday, a free farmers market at the Robert Wood Johnson Pavilion offers Penn community members fresh produce from Penn Farm.

The program, a collaboration between the Penn Center for Public Health and Penn Farm, begins at 11:30 a.m. each week and runs until produce runs out. Since opening in mid-September, the market has been well received by the Penn community. Each week, 30 to 50 students and staff pick up their products.

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The Free Farmers Market aims to combat food insecurity and help community members eat healthier at no additional financial cost.

Frankie Cameron, program manager at the Penn Center for Public Health and program director of the Free Farmers Market, works with West Philadelphia public schools to manage their sex education programs. They reported on a recent cucumber teaching demonstration at an elementary school where students asked if they could eat the cucumbers because they were hungry.

Cameron said they hope to combat similar issues faced by students on Penn’s campus. While many food nutrition projects focus on students, Cameron hopes the new farmers market will expand access to food for graduate students as well.

The market uses a “take what you need, leave it to others” system that Cameron says will help combat a broader American culture that perpetuates the idea that basic rights must be earned.

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“If people are unable to live healthy lives, it’s not the individual’s fault,” Cameron said. “It is a system failure. In American society there is this idea of ​​bootstrapping and the need to earn things like food, housing, and income rather than just inherent human rights. The more communities help each other, the more we can try to break away from this culture.”

Masters student Bella Min said she usually buys her vegetables at the supermarket and the program has allowed her to save money while eating healthier.

“I feel like I’m getting healthier and eating healthier,” Min said. “I feel like, ‘Ah, I’m living a better life right now.'”

The initiative benefits both volunteers and community members.

Master’s student Semanti Pathak said volunteer work allowed her to immerse herself in the Penn community. As an undergraduate graduate with a close-knit community, Pathak said the work helped her overcome her nervousness about finding a job on Penn’s larger and busy campus.

“It feels really good to be part of something,” Pathak said. “I’m enjoying the new role I’m taking on, building relationships with people and recognizing faculty and students I would otherwise never really interact with.”

Pathak added that she views charitable initiatives as “mutually beneficial relationships where we all build something together.”

She especially enjoys hearing about community members’ cooking skills and sharing that knowledge with students who are less familiar with products.

“It’s really fun to see people in the middle of planning their next meal,” Pathak said. “Some people are learning to cook for the first time, others want to cook but don’t. When you interact with all of these people, you get a fuller picture of the fusion of their different personalities and how they interact with food.”