Food deserts—that’s what Morgan Taggart calls urban areas that don’t offer affordable, fresh produce—areas that relegate residents to shopping for meals at convenience markets where the only fruit or vegetables have been canned, juiced and/or processed.

With the cooperation of the New Agrarian Center and the Ohio State University (OSU) extension, Morgan Taggart, market garden coordinator for the OSU extension, is creating a fresh local-produce oasis in Cleveland called City Fresh.

Q: What is your background, before you came to the OSU extension and the City Fresh program?
I have a degree in biology and then I started working in a couple of different farms focusing on international development and sustainable agriculture. I worked with farmers from Latin America and Africa teaching sustainable techniques to improve production.

Then I worked at a farm, and I managed an organic, rotationally-raised livestock operation. I joined the OSU extension about a year ago when City Fresh was about six months old.

Q: Talk a little bit about City Fresh: What are the goals of the program and how does it work with the community?
The goal is to connect local growers with communities that have limited access to fresh produce. We have Fresh Stop Food Centers throughout the city. All the food is picked up directly from participating farmers and delivered to these sites. Fresh Stops offer weekly “market bags” which include a mix of produce available from local farmers each week. The contents of each bag will vary according to what produce is available that week.

Q: Do local farmers have trouble getting their produce to market?
I don’t think they were necessarily having trouble selling their produce. In fact, from what I’ve heard there is more demand than there is supply at this point.

The goal is to help develop market gardens within the city of Cleveland that are new start-up businesses for those people interested in starting their own gardens and selling produce. The other goal is to make local produce affordable to low income families and communities. We do that at City Fresh by offering a share at $10 dollars for those who meet the WIC income guidelines and regular income share at $20 dollars. It’s about providing the freshest produce at an affordable price.

The other aspect of City Fresh is to work with local businesses like restaurants and grocers to bring in local produce and really increase that demand so that these growers have markets that they can tap into.

Q: Is this similar to what is often called a ‘CSA—community sustained agriculture’ where you buy shares in a farm and then provide a percentage of the harvest?
We borrowed certain elements from the CSA model but we want to be flexible for those using the Ohio Direction Card (food stamps and WIC) and who can’t afford to pay for a whole season up front. We need to meet their needs, so we don’t operate like a CSA in that manner. We put the market bags together to get a variety of seasonal produce items and then offering those to our shareholders.

Q: So you can buy the Share Bags and anyone can come and buy those but what about loose produce?
You can buy produce a la carte at two of the sites -- Clark/Metro (West 25th and Clark, Thursdays from 3 to 7 p.m.)as well as Slavic Village (at Mural Garden Park at East 55th and Broadway, Fridays from 3 to 7 p.m.).

Q: You have nutrition experts at each site; what do they do?
Our OSU extension nutrition educators are actively involved in the project. Each site has a nutrition educator, who is bilingual, who provides a different lesson each week. And that education component is really critical.

There are things in the bag that people may not be familiar cooking. The educators make a recipe with something that is found in the share bag and offer samples and nutrition information both in Spanish and in English.

Q: How have City Fresh and the Fresh Stops been received? Do you see the demand and is it growing?

Last year we did really well and this year the demand is definitely growing. We are seeing growth at a number of sites. I think one of the challenges is getting people thinking about eating seasonally and locally. The fact that we are not going to have every type of produce and learning to eat what is in season and what grows in Northeast Ohio is a process.

I think people really enjoy getting things that they wouldn’t buy. The surprise of what is going to be in the bag this week. We try to post on our website what we are hoping to get into the bag this week to give people an idea. Other feed back that we received was that the food is so fresh that it last so much longer. Most of the time it was picked that Thursday morning or the day before so it doesn’t spoil in a couple of days. People see the advantages.