City Greens Produce
CITY GREENS PRODUCE
Training: Twice weekly, September 12 - October 29, 2011
Exhibition Site #1: Photography Project Gallery @ UMSL, January 17 - March 4, 2012
Exhibition Site #2: Catholic Charities Midtown Center, 1202 S. Boyle Avenue, St. Louis, MO, 63110, January 17 - March 4, 2012
Descend the stairs to the cheery, yellow basement of Catholic Charities Midtown Center and behold: the smell of sautéed garlic and onions draws you in immediately. In the back, fresh vegetables are simmering, soon to be served up in a hot wraps for lingering shoppers to sample. Powerhouse volunteer Bobbie Sykes has proven that one sure-fire way to seduce skeptics into eating a healthier diet is through happy taste buds. She muses, “I like to make community hunger disappear. There are no right or wrong foods but we should try to use them healthier.”
Welcome to City Greens Produce, an innovative nonprofit sponsored by Catholic Charities Midtown and dynamically living up to its vision: “Our community should have access to healthy, fresh, and affordable choices to fuel our bodies and minds. People unite around food—sharing meals and memories. At City Greens our community is uniting to make sure each of us has the opportunity to enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables—from the good earth to our family’s tables.” Everyone is welcome to shop here! Sponsoring members make a yearly donation, but City Green’s Tower Grove South neighbors living below the poverty guideline enjoy free memberships to shop for delicious, at-cost, tax-free, organic, local food. Tables are stocked with produce from Lincoln County, Missouri and other local goodies such as Companion Bakery bread, Hilty’s Bee Yard jams and honey, Mound City Peanut Butter, and Freddy’s Ghetto Sauce.
The PPRC Photography Project participants who took these photos were a diverse crew ranging in age from 15-67 and including Midtown staff and volunteers, as well as the center’s director and a volunteer’s granddaughter. We started off taking notes on Edward Weston’s inquiry into the formal beauty of simple produce. Then we followed cues from Roy DeCarava’s poetic documentation of Harlem’s coming-of-age as we explored the community garden and took field trips following the path of the Supa’ Fresh Veggie Mobile—the lime green market-on-wheels that takes City Greens’ affordable produce to other St. Louis districts. Finally, in preparation for our own collaborative feast, we inquired after the deeper meaning of breaking bread together, inspired by Carrie May Weems’ “Kitchen Table Series.”
Nyree Thomas remembers, “Our kitchen table was like the living room of our house. And Mama had her seat – everybody knew. Under the plastic table cloth was a puzzle to put together…” It seems that the City Greens Produce market is growing up to be the ‘living room’ of the neighborhood, where gathering around real food and relaxing, hearty laughter is good medicine.
—Lyndsey Scott
PPRC Photography Project Instructor
Participants
Darrell Barber
Kimberly Barber
Sam Giese
Robert Harmon
Dia Harper
Betty Howard
Zachary Moore
John Pachak
Maureen Quinn
Kimyatta Smith
Bobbie Sykes
Nyree Thomas
Paula Tyler
Partners
City Greens Produce
Catholic Charities Midtown Center