In the past, farmers’ markets in the central and northern Navajo County area have struggled to take hold. One method of increasing farmers market attendance and improving public health is to qualify for the Arizona Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program (FMNP), which allows low-income people to use WIC vouchers or SNAP benefits at markets.
According to Allison Hephner at the Public Health Department, the challenge to getting that approval is that the area currently does not have enough FMNP trained growers participating in the program to qualify.
Barbra Hockabout at Lodestar Gardens in Concho has been working with Hephner to get the FMNP approval for an official farmers market in central and northern Navajo County.
“We’ve lost six of our biggest growers in the area over the last four years,” she said. “A lot have moved out, but a lot are coming in, too.” She noted that the ones who are coming in often need support from experienced growers to succeed. Growers also need additional labor to keep up with the demands of a garden. In fact, she often relies on volunteer WWOOFers (Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms), who help in the demonstration garden in exchange for the educational experience.
In response to the need, Hockabout recently shifted her focus from farming for subsistence to food networking and providing educational workshops to growers in the area. Legalities prevented success in her first attempts to create a co-op, but last year she successfully helped start the Concho Farmers Market and she has operated a “harvest for labor” program in her own garden for years.
Some progress has been made in getting more growers to the markets by opening community gardens. Also, federal rules prohibiting children from consuming foods in the cafeteria that were grown on school grounds have changed and many schools have begun including gardening in the curriculum.
Centering a larger agricultural operation on a non-profit co-op or farmers market concept has added benefits from an economic standpoint. It creates jobs and produces income to be reinvested back into the business, potentially creating even more jobs. Meanwhile it also stimulates the same local economy through rents, utilities and increased spending of employees.
