NEWPORT, Ore. — Yoshira Estrada had never been to the Newport Farmers Market prior to September.
As she walked around the market with her daughter and mother, Estrada listened to Flor Gaspar Marquez and Kimberly Alcaraz, interns in the Oregon State University Extension Service office in Lincoln County who acted as guides to the market’s fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, breads and other food items.
A group of about 20 had signed up for a program called Guatemalan and Latinx Community Cooking Classes and Farmers Market Tours, which is offered by OSU Extension in partnership with Food Share of Lincoln County.
Halfway through the tour, Gaspar and Alcaraz stopped at a vendor selling eggs and meat.
Alcaraz told the group: “If you’re going to get meat here, you can ask the vendor, ‘Did you raise your chicken or your pork?’ ‘Do you have a recipe?’”
A few minutes later, Estrada paused from the tour to describe what she was learning.
“The differences between fruits and veggies here and the grocery store,” she said. “It’s locally grown and fresh. We’re getting tips, too, like how 30 minutes before the market closes you get lower prices.”
Shopping on a budget is a focus of the program, which includes tours in both Spanish and English of the farmers market along with local grocery stores. It’s offered as part of the Cooking Matters program in Lincoln County.
“The tours have been very well received by community members,” said Beatriz Botello Salgado, the coordinator of Lincoln County’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program unit, known as SNAP‑Ed, in OSU Extension’s Family and Community Health Program.
The tours at the Newport Farmers Market start at the manager’s booth to facilitate information on how to transact SNAP benefits. Next door is the OSU Extension table, which features information about food preservation and tasting, and a community collaborator from the nonprofit organization Conexión Fenix shares information about the benefits of Double Up Food Bucks at the market.
Double Up Food Bucks allows shoppers to double their SNAP benefits to purchase more fruits and vegetables at farmers markets, farm stands, grocery stores and community supported agriculture (CSA) shares across Oregon. On tour day, each participant received $25 in farmers market tokens to purchase food, in partnership with Food Share of Lincoln County and made possible by a grant from Samaritan Health Service.
‘Good for your health’
Before they begin walking around the market, Botello Salgado provides an introduction on what to expect, including visits with a farmer with a variety of produce to facilitate conversation about tips on purchasing, preserving and preparing produce. The tour includes vendors selling cheeses, meats, breads and herbs.
In September, Botello Salgado led a second group of Spanish-speakers. She stopped at the Oso Honey Farm booth, which in addition to honey had seasonal vegetables and herbs that are excellent ingredients for healthy recipes, Botello Salgado said.
“This is very good for your health,” she said, holding up a bundle of kale. “This type of vegetable can be substituted in dishes that contain quentoniles [edible native weeds in Mexico] or other types of leafy vegetables.”
She pointed out papalo, a leafy green herb native to Mexico and Central and South America. Several tour members passed around a lemon tea bunch, holding up to their nose to smell.
“That’s for tamales,” Botello Salgado said.
Tips shared on each tour include comparing unit prices and food labels, and ways to use community food resources available at the market — including SNAP Electronic Benefits Transfer and Oregon Farm Direct, in which seniors and WIC (Women, Infants and Children)-eligible participants receive vouchers to spend on fresh, locally-grown fruits, vegetables and cut edible herbs.
Along the way, the tour leaders discuss ways to engage children in age-appropriate activities when shopping for food and identify planning strategies that can help make food preparation quicker and easier.
The tours are supported by a social accountability grant from Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital and Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital.
In addition to the tours, OSU Extension and Food Share of Lincoln County provide ingredients and teach healthy cooking classes in commercial kitchens at the OSU Extension office in Newport and at St. James Santiago Episcopal Church in Lincoln City.
