Julia St. Clair is the Agricultural Programs Coordinator for the Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust in Brunswick, Maine. She has been instrumental in starting the Power of Produce Kids Club at the BTLT Farmers’ Market at Crystal Spring Farm in Brunswick.
How do you interact with the local food system?
My role involves overseeing the Tom Settlemire Community Garden (TSCG) and the BTLT Saturday Farmers’ Market at Crystal Spring Farm, so I get to work alongside a lot of incredible farmers and gardeners. Additionally, I have the chance to promote food access programs at the Market as well as coordinate the Common Good Garden at TSCG which grows produce for the Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program.
I LOVE cooking, and feeding people brings me great joy. Being able to tell folks where everything in a meal was grown or made makes me feel all fuzzy inside. So in many ways, this role is sorta my dream job.
What do you see as some strengths of our local food system? Weaknesses?
We have A LOT of amazing farmers, bakers, and makers in our region - many of whom also consider food accessibility a responsibility and part of their operation. We are lucky to have so many of them at the BTLT Farmers’ Market.
At the Farmers’ Market, in addition to our new POP Club, we also run a SNAP program for EBT users that offers additional bonus vouchers for fruits and vegetables. We also support the Bumper Crop program which is a workplace wellness program that offers vouchers to spend at farmers markets. A handful of our vendors also accept WIC.
I feel strongly that everyone should be able to access and afford local food and I think the Farmers’ Market is a special place for folks to build relationships and feel invited into the local food community. I aim to continue to explore and expand the ways in which we can invite even more folks to feel welcomed in this space.
Can you share a little about the POP program and your hopes for the future?
The POP (Power of Produce) Kids Club was launched as a pilot this season at the BTLT Farmers’ Market as part of a larger program with the Farmers Market Coalition. Every week kids come to the Market, they get $4 in ‘POP Bucks’ to spend on fruits and vegetables at the Market.
This program encourages kids to make healthy food choices, get excited about the Farmers’ Market, and try new fruits and vegetables. Additionally, this program also supports our local fruit and vegetable producers.
Already the program has been wildly popular with over 100 kids signing up in the first month and many of them returning several weeks in a row. The enthusiasm around the program has also been reassuring; info about the POP Club has spread mostly through word of mouth, kids and parents alike get excited about the prospect of bringing home some more vegetables, and it gives kids a chance to engage with some of the other activities at our kid’s booth including coloring sheets and a scavenger hunt.
What’s been most exciting to me is the conversations I have had with some of the kids who have joined the POP Club these first few weeks; one little girl who was planning to save her vouchers up to buy strawberries once they were in season, two siblings who needed some encouragement to go out and explore to find veggies they might want to try, an enthusiastic boy who came back to tell me he had selected carrots from two different farmers.
Right now, the program is grant funded and we are looking to secure more funding as the engagement with the program has exceeded our expectations! We are really excited about this and hopeful we will be able to find ways to expand the program in the coming years.
Support the POP Club with a donation to BTLT (add a note saying the purpose of your donation).
What are the most important things that should be happening in the region to support increased production, consumption, and access to local foods?
This is a hard question to begin to answer because there are SO MANY THINGS and I think ACCESS is really the issue in most spaces. But when I think about the POP Club, I would really like to see this program expand and find a way to best track impact. It would be great to see other Farmers’ Markets be able to join in this program and for us to be able to offer ‘POP Bucks’ for dairy, meat, and breads as part of the program as well.
I really believe strongly in making the Farmers’ Market a fun and enjoyable place for kids and giving them the chance to build positive relationships with our local food system. Getting kids excited about vegetables at a young age will hopefully keep them engaged with fresh, healthy, local foods for a lifetime.
What's for dinner tonight?
Homemade pesto pasta with basil from Six River Farm, a salad with veggies from Whatley Farm, and hopefully some bread from Bread and Friends if I can snag a loaf before they sell out! (Have I made it clear yet that I love local food?)