La casa es su casa: La Casa de Don Pedro hosts second farmer’s market for Newark community

Newark, New Jersey — Members of the Newark community came together to shop for fresh produce, participate in free exercise classes, and win some prizes at La Casa de Don Pedro’s recent farmer’s market at 43 Broadway on August 12th. 

La Casa de Don Pedro is a local Community-Based Organization (CBO) committed to empowering the community of Greater Newark and Essex County. Since its inception in 1972, La Casa has provided early childhood education, immigration services, adult and alternative education and youth family and health programs to the Newark community. It is also a member of the Newark Youth Workforce Collaborative, a collective approach to creating a school-to-workforce pipeline within Newark. Opportunity Youth Network serves as the backbone of the Collaborative.

The farmer’s market is phase two of a program implemented by La Casa with help from a two-year grant from Newark City Hall, according to Janet Mateo, the coordinator of the farmers market series. The first phase of the program was a 10-week course where community members learned about nutrition and exercise. During this course, a group of 50 participants learned about healthy cooking, prepared meals, took trips to Branch Brook Park and exercised with a yoga instructor.

“We also partnered with RWJ Barnabas to do health screenings, diabetes checks, blood pressure screenings and cholesterol checks,” Mateo said. “We did a before and after and what we noticed towards the end of the 10-week course was that over 65% of the students had improved their overall health. Their diabetes or cholesterol numbers went down drastically just by reading nutrition labels, eating healthier, avoiding red meat, eating plant-based versus processed foods, and having more routine checks with their primary care physician.” 

This is the second farmer’s market La Casa has hosted, with each market centering around a theme. The most recent theme was exercise and wellness. 

Local organizations and groups such as Aetna Better Health of New Jersey, Newark Board of Education, Montclair Community Farms and FoodAllergy Research & Education (FARE) were some of the vendors in attendance at the farmer’s market. 

OYN Chief Program Officer Jasmine Joseph-Forman said, “La Casa is such a strong partner because of the variety of programs it offers to the community. It’s not just job training and education - it’s everything else necessary to achieve long-term success. The local farmer’s market is yet another example of the wraparound services provided by La Casa.”

La Casa de Don Pedro plans on continuing this farmer’s market series into the early fall. The next two dates of the local market are September 9 and October 21. 

Director of Communications Elgin Cintron added, “Food deserts have been a real issue ignored for some time…we're hoping that this leads to other farmer's markets and increased access. Ideally, this would lead not just to more places selling good produce and more access to good produce in this neighborhood, but also to a culture change around nutrition.”

For more information on La Casa and its programs, visit www.lacasanwk.org.