Louisville Medicine Volume 66, Issue 6 | Page 24

FOOD INSECURITY HUNGRY MOUTHS Still to Feed Aaron Burch A s 4:30 pm neared, a line started to form outside the First Unitarian Church atrium in Old Louisville. T As a light drizzle fell, the group of elderly patrons waited quietly. Through the door was a cozy room full of tables where volunteers prepared produce for the evening’s shoppers. Grown by local farmers and delivered with an exact number of shop- pers known in advance, each table was full of just over 80 servings of a designated fruit or vegetable. Cartons of beautiful purple okra, bags of peaches and piles of eggplant filled the room. Watermelons overflowed from their table and rested on the floor nearby. When the clock struck, the patrons were welcomed in to Old Louisville’s Fresh Stop Market. One of 18 locations, Fresh Stop Market contributes to the support of dozens of food-insecure Lou- isville residents. More broadly, the Greater Louisville and Southern Indiana 22 LOUISVILLE MEDICINE Fresh Stop Markets fed 1,800 shareholder families throughout 2017, and the buy-in continues to grow. The markets are scheduled once every two weeks from June to October, allowing pre-registered patrons to pick up delicious produce for a price which meets their standard of living. Sarah Dugan is the Administrative Coordinator for New Roots, Fresh Stop Market’s parent company. Dugan has been on staff for a year and a half but served as a shareholder and volunteer for years prior. “This program is really close to my heart, because it helped me when I was struggling to feed my son as a single mom,” Dugan ex- plained. “I didn’t want preservative-laced baby food. I just wanted healthy vegetables. My son, who is now eight, volunteers with me at the New Albany market. He’s one of our best vegetable cheerleaders because if you have a kid standing behind a table and telling you to eat your okra, how can you say no to that?”