By Connor Adams Sheets
Queens veggie-lovers will have one more location to find fresh produce when a new farmers’ market opens next week in Fresh Meadows.
The Pomonok Farmers’ Market will open for the first time July 7 at 10 a.m. in the parking lot of Queens Community House’s Pomonok Community Center, where it will run every Thursday through mid-November from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The space, across from Queens College at 67-09 Kissena Blvd., is aimed at bringing healthy, well-sourced foods to the residents of the Pomonok Houses and the surrounding community.
“The Healthy Communities Through Healthy Food initiative offers an opportunity for us to build on the health component of our existing campaigns, utilizing existing partnerships and augmenting our current health agenda,” Queens Community House spokeswoman Meryl Branch-McTiernan said in a statement. “We look forward to celebrating this exciting new opportunity for our community with you on July 7.”
And local foodies will be happy to learn that some of the vegetables sold at the bazaar will be locally sourced, as they are being culled from a garden at the Pomonok Houses and John Bowne High School’s own mini-farm as well as a farm in Pennsylvania.
The initiative came about in response to a survey of community members commissioned by Queens Community House that determined that 34 percent of respondents shop for produce 12 or more blocks from their home. A full 83 percent of people polled said they wanted to include more fruits and vegetables in their diets, but 24 percent said it is “too far to travel to buy them” and 8 percent noted they are “too expensive.”
In response to the lack of adequate access, 31 percent of respondents said they “sometimes” rely on canned vegetables while 41 percent “sometimes” rely on frozen vegetables.
Coming on the heels of the survey, the Pomonok market will bring good food to people who may not otherwise have the opportunity to obtain it.
The market was created with a grant from the Healthy Communities Through Healthy Food initiative, which is funded by the Community Experience Partnership, a national initiative of the Atlantic Philanthropies, in combination with local funding provided by the New York Community Trust. The grant is managed by United Neighborhood Houses.
The GrowNYC nonprofit — which is not managing the Pomonok market — currently operates four Queens green markets of its own in Glendale, Jackson Heights, Long Island City and Sunnyside.
Contact Amy Tam-Liao, community organizer for Queens Community House, at 718-591-6060 or aliao@queenscommunityhouse.org for more information about the new market.
Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
