Two years ago, Dr. Preston Maring had an idea: Instead of telling his patients to seek out fresh food, why not bring it to them? He worked with the Pacific Coast Farmers' Market Association and brought 10 farmers to a new farmers' market at the Oakland Kaiser Permanente Medical Center where he works. It's a perfect match: a location where many people are working or going for appointments combined with farmers who want to sell their product to as many people as possible.
"Patients bring strawberries or cherries to their doctors as presents now," says Maring. "People have told me they schedule their appointments on Fridays so they can go to the market." Kaiser now has farmers' markets at numerous sites nationwide, and the number is growing. Maring says that many of the customers at Kaiser's farmers' markets have never been farmers' market customers before.
In a panel hosted by the Commonwealth Club and CUESA last week entitiled "The Future of Farmers' Markets," panelists kept returning to the Kaiser Permanente model as a good example of great way to spread farmers' markets throughout the area. While it's easy to say that a market should open up in every neighborhood in town, farmers only want to go to markets where they will make money, and a built in community such as that at the Kaiser Medical Centers is a good place to start.
It is a commonly accepted thought that more farmers' markets in the Bay Area would be a benefit to the area. Markets often become a gathering place for the neighborhood or town, and the accessibility of fresh food from local farmers is a benefit to the community.