Proposal for a Vendors' Market in Baltimore
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WINNER 2015 Abell Award in Urban Policy Food Access and Waste Reduction: Proposal for a Vendors’ Market in Baltimore City Marie Spiker Ph. D Student Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health Department of International Health Corbin Cunningham Ph. D Candidate Johns Hopkins University Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences July 2015 The Abell Foundation www.abell.org Suite 2300 Phone: 410-547-1300 111 S. Calvert Street @abellfoundation Baltimore, MD 21202-6174 TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary.......................................................................................1 I. Defining the Problems...............................................................................2 Evidence Review Part A: Low Food Access in Baltimore......................3 Evidence Review Part B: Wholesale Food Waste in Baltimore............6 Evidence Review Part C: Case Study of Haymarket..............................9 II. Policy Recommendations and Considerations for Implementation...12 A. Recommendations...............................................................................12 B. Evaluating Potential Implementing Partners..................................13 C. Feasibility..............................................................................................15 D. Unintended Consequences, Challenges, and Benefits....................16 E. Conclusions............................................................................................18 References.......................................................................................................18 Appendix A: Definitions.................................................................................21 Appendix B: Interview Guides.......................................................................22 Disclosure of Related Ongoing Research.....................................................24 WINNER 2015 Abell Award in Urban Policy Abell Foundation www.abell.org @abellfoundation P: 410-547-1300 July 2015 1 Executive Summary the MFCA could be sent to a vendors’ market instead of a landfill. This range of estimates, We propose the development of a vendors’ which is based on stakeholder interviews with market to provide opportunities for small the MFCA and selected wholesale tenants, business entrepreneurs to sell unsold is intentionally conservative and reflects the produce from wholesale food distributors, current lack of systematic tracking of food which would otherwise be sent to a landfill, waste at the wholesale level. to consumers at a deeply discounted price. Such a market addresses two interrelated Baltimore City’s landscape of public and issues: food insecurity and excess food private sector organizations is well suited waste. to host a vendors’ market. We assess a selection of potential implementing partners We review the literature and interview – the Baltimore Food Hub, the Baltimore stakeholders to provide empirical evidence Public Markets Corporation (considered on the two interconnected issues of food in conjunction with the Lexington Market access and food waste. The literature on Corporation), the Baltimore Development food access shows that while living close to Corporation, the 32nd Street Farmers’ Market, sources of inexpensive fruits and vegetables and the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the has the potential to improve diets, there is Arts – on their suitability to operationalize a active debate among researchers about this vendors’ market. relationship and its underlying mechanisms. The literature on food waste takes a strong We propose three policy recommendations stance: between 31% and 40% of the for Baltimore City’s Offices of Economic and nation’s food supply is wasted, with 10% of Neighborhood Development: the food supply wasted at the wholesale and retail level. We also provide a case study of 1. Support the vendors’ market. Haymarket, a vendors’ market that has been Demonstrate a commitment to a vendors’ active in Boston since 1830. Haymarket is market in Baltimore City by developing regulated and protected by city ordinances, and facilitating a partnership between the and Boston’s investment has contributed Maryland Food Center Authority and an to a thriving market that reduces food implementing partner. waste, provides jobs, and makes fruits and vegetables accessible at a low price. 2. Make it easy to become a vendor. Work with an implementing partner to identify In the context of Baltimore City, the need for potential regulatory and zoning barriers a vendors’ market is clear. Twenty percent that might affect a vendors’ market, and of Baltimore City residents live in areas with develop easily accessible, streamlined low access to healthy foods. Meanwhile, materials to help vendors navigate the a substantial amount of food sent to the process. landfill from the area’s largest wholesale 3. Make it easy to compost. Work with an facility, the Maryland Food Center Authority implementing partner to identify potential (MFCA), can still be sold and consumed. We regulatory and zoning barriers that might calculate that in a year, between 110,000 interfere with composting the unsold food and 1.3 million pounds of edible food from from the vendors’ market, in order to further minimize waste. 2 “Our goal is to create a business opportunity that will minimize the amount of food that ends up in a landfill while also providing access to healthy food in urban areas.” These policy recommendations align with a vegetable commodities. The United States broader vision of sustainable food systems, Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural and they are operationally, economically, and Marketing Service has established official politically feasible. We are asking for Baltimore grade standards to classify foods according to City’s investment in the improved coordination their quality, based on characteristics such as 3 of the food supply chain as part of an innovative maturity, firmness, shape, texture, and color. effort to divert food from the landfill and make Fruits and vegetables receive grades of US fresh produce more accessible to City residents. No. 1, US No. 2, or US No. 3, with additional specifications (such as “Fancy”) depending I. Defining the Problems on the type of fruit or vegetable. It is optional to have food officially graded by the USDA, Introduction but many buyers and sellers choose to pay a fee for this service because grading allows In a city where one of every three neighborhoods for a common understanding of quality when is classified as a food desert, one of Baltimore determining whether to reject a shipment or City’s most pressing issues is low access to food how to negotiate a price. Major food retailers for vulnerable populations.1 A “food desert” such as supermarkets and restaurants typically is a low-income area that lacks access to fresh purchase only US No. 1 graded produce from food from supermarkets.2 (Definitions for wholesalers. The fate of the US No. 2 and commonly used terms can be found in Appendix US No. 3 graded produce, also referred to as A.) However, this issue does not exist in isolation. “seconds and thirds,” “distressed produce,” Baltimore’s lack of fresh, healthy, affordable food “out-graded produce,” “off-graded produce,” is related to food waste at the wholesale level and or “surplus produce,” is our primary concern in a need for more entrepreneurial opportunities this paper. Because one of the characteristics for small businesses. In this paper, we propose of Grade No. 1 produce is that it is not the development of a vendors’ market to provide overripe, produce that has ripened while in opportunities for small business entrepreneurs storage can deteriorate to a lower grade. to sell surplus produce from wholesale food No. 2 and No. 3 produce from wholesalers in distributors at a deeply discounted price. Such a Baltimore are typically either purchased for market addresses two interrelated issues: food sale by independent vendors including the insecurity and excess food waste. city’s historic Arabbers, donated to charitable In this paper, a “vendors’ market” refers to a organizations, or disposed of through landfill market in which members of the general public or compost. Our goal is to create a business can purchase No. 2 and No. 3 graded produce opportunity that will minimize the amount that would otherwise have been disposed of food that ends up in a landfill while also of by wholesalers. At this point it is useful providing access to healthy food in urban to introduce a few terms related to fruit and areas. Abell Foundation www.abell.org @abellfoundation P: 410-547-1300 July 2015 3 Methods “access” to food is one of affordability, and so we also review literature on how food In the first part of this paper we use results prices are associated with patterns of food from a review of the literature and interviews purchasing and consumption. The evidence with stakeholders to provide empirical reviewed here is strong, with literature drawn evidence on the scope of two interconnected from research in public health, nutrition, issues – food waste and food access – in the geography, and economics. context of Baltimore City. One component of the evidence is a case study of Haymarket, a Defining food access as a problem vendors’ market in Boston. The second part of this paper proposes policy and programmatic Before describing the literature, it is useful recommendations, assesses potential to distinguish between two commonly used implementing partners that could create and terms: