Acres Homes Farmers Market partners with METRO to bring fresh produce to food desert

HOUSTON - Twice a month at the Acres Homes Chamber for Business and Economic Development, there is a Farmers Market that has a host of vendors. 

Starting on Saturday, with the help of METRO, people can get their hands on healthy food for less than $5.

Discounted METRO rides to Acres Home Farmers Market

What they're saying:

"Acres Homse is known for the 44 bus, and we know the METRO, but one of the things that we found in doing the Farmers Market and going out into the community is a lot of people want to come to the market, but they don't have transportation," said Sheba Roy, Farmers Market Manager and Communications Specialist for the Acres Homes Chamber for Business and Economic Development.

"So they will bring residents of Acres Homes to the market on market days for $1.25, and then, they will take them back home for $1.25, and that's using the ‘curb2curb’ service or the bus," Roy said. 

Fighting food insecurity

Big picture view:

The goal of the discounted rides is to connect Acres Homes residents to healthier food options.

"Whether you are on Antoine or here near Wheatley on West Montgomery, it's going to take you at least 25 minutes to get to H-E-B," Roy said. "If you really look deeply into this community that there is everyone here, it's not just the elderly, it's not just low income, it's not just people who you think don't care about themselves. Everyone is here and everyone deserves access to fresh healthy foods."

Yvette Leno is the owner and director of Beauty Community Garden, and she grows a lot of fresh produce here, including carrots, collard greens and onions. Every first and third Saturday, she brings fresh produce to the Acres Home Farmers Market in order to help in that community living in a food dessert fight food insecurity. 

"Normally, when we buy those foods from other grocery stores that offer them, they are a lot of times cost-prohibitive. Anything that starts with an ‘O’ - ‘organic’ - is 3-4 times as much," said Leno. "The onions, we sell them $2 maybe for a bunch. At the store, something organic would probably be double and produce that we don't have to worry about that's being sprayed with pesticides. The fact that folks that use SNAP benefits, we can definitely accommodate them."