Trumansburg Harvest connects youth to food

The Trumansburg Fairgrounds is a gathering place for many activities — sports, music and, of course, the annual fair. But on Thursday evenings through mid-August, Trumansburg-area youth are connecting there through food, produce to be more specific.

Trumansburg Harvest is a new, free produce market from 3 to 6 p.m. Thursdays for youth in the town of Ulysses. Born out of a pilot program in Groton, a variety of local partners joined forces to bring it to Trumansburg.

Ethan Cramton, the Trumansburg/Ulysses Youth Service program manager for Cornell Cooperative Extension Rural Youth Services, said the market is aimed at youth aged 18 and younger who live in the town of Ulysses.

“We aren’t doing ID checks. We just want families with children under 18 to come,” he said. “We realize our proximity to Seneca County, but we want people who want food to come and get it.”

Opening week produced a turnout of 77 kids picking up full bags of food, Cramton said, with 66 accompanying adults. Last week, the second market, 111 youth and 83 accompanying adults were there.

“We were really, really happy,” Cramton said. “We had a really great turnout.”

The market is not just for youth to partake in; it is also being run by Trumansburg middle and high school students.

“The biggest thing to this is it is a whole youth-centric program. We have youth running the stand and youth doing the choosing [what produce they want to take home from the market],” Cramton said. “Of course, adults need to get together and get funding, but the focus is to empower youth to get their own food and feel like they can make a difference in their own community.”

Madison Feely, who will be a senior at Charles O. Dickerson High School in Trumansburg this fall, is volunteering at the market as part of her Gold Award project for Girl Scouts.

“I signed up to help run this market, and it just took off,” she said. “Now, I’m overseeing it, and I will help with the future plans. It’s really interesting. I like teaching kids about food and cooking.”

Feely said it is challenging to lead a youth-run group, having to supervise younger students, find other volunteers and plan events to take place during the market.

“I do a lot of the social media,” she said. “That’s what I’ve had to learn the most — keeping track of information to post, when good times to post are, posting frequently so people see it.”

Feely is also the graphic designer for the market, and she designed the logos on the reusable bags being given away. She also designed a banner that will soon be hung up during the market and has made the promotional flyers posted throughout the community.

“That was my favorite part because it was artistic,” Feely said about the graphic design work.

Recruited to volunteer at the kids’ market by Feely were Violet Zoner, also a Trumansburg senior, and Ayala Coffin, who is entering 10th grade.

“I love how all the kids can come through and pick out what they want,” Zoner said. “I think it’s good to give kids a choice.”

“I like seeing the little kids feeling happy and seeing smiles on their faces,” added Coffin. “I think it’s pretty neat how Madison organized all this and did the logos.”

Trumansburg Harvest being youth-run is a benefit if you ask the students participating.

“It’s easier for us to relate because we’re younger, so we know what younger kids like,” Coffin said.

Feely hopes youth who come to the market to pick up produce get more excited about cooking.

“When they come and pick out things they’re interested in, they are more likely to help their parents with cooking,” Feely said.

With a new light being shone on food insecurity due to the pandemic, particularly for youth who depend on school meals, Trumansburg Harvest shows students how to provide and find healthy eating options.

“The pandemic was a social magnifier. It magnified an issue already embedded in the community,” Cramton said. “We are trying to make this a long-term solution that has always been here.”

While Trumansburg Harvest at the Fairgrounds will end Aug. 12, it will resume as a school program once classes begin again. Cramton said there will be a monthly market as part of a cooking program he will be running.

“One thing we all insisted on was this wasn’t just going to be a five-week program,” he said.

Organizations involved in making Trumansburg Harvest a reality include Cornell Cooperative Extension Rural Youth Services, Trumansburg Central School District, Food Bank of the Southern Tier, Ulysses Philomathic Library, Tompkins Cortland Community College and the Park Foundation.

Cramton said plans for the market came together quickly at the end of the school year, thanks to a Park Foundation grant.

Produce offered at the market comes from the Food Bank of the Southern Tier.

“It comes from regional growers, except we occasionally get some from outside the region,” Cramton said, noting a recent offering of grapes that are not yet ready in the area.

He said the youth market is currently only getting its produce from the Food Bank, though he hopes to connect with local farmers in the future. Trumansburg Harvest is also not affiliated with any local markets.

“This is completely unrelated to any established farmers market,” Cramton said.

The speed with which everything came together, he said, meant a quick start for the market with the possibility of adding partners and opportunities in the future.

“The big thing for us was launching this program,” Cramton said. “The hope is to grow the program and have it mesh into this community as well as possible.”

He noted that the Trumansburg Central School District obtained a grant for irrigation at its hoop house next to Russell I. Doig Middle School.

“Our hope is that we’re going to be growing our own stuff to be distributed [at the youth market],” Cramton said.

Have Trumansburg area news? Connect with Rob Montana at rob.j.montana@gmail.com.