It was an event day. A festival. There was music. Food for the taking. An artist making dragons and tigers out of boys and butterflies and flowers out of girls. Even though it was the end of September, the Community Harvest Market in Kingston’s North End was aglow with sun and with human connectivity. It was perfect.
The market is all about making good food available in an area of town that is too poor and where food is too far away from most people’s homes. It’s friendly and approachable. The sign is hand-painted. Kids come and go. The tomatoes and cabbages and beets sit sprightly on the folding tables. Folks walk away with a few delectables tucked into their own shopping bags. There are baked goods for sale and homemade jewellery, jams and spanokopita. If you fill out a survey you get a coupon for produce.
The Sisters of Providence are one of a handful of organizations and agencies that support the market. Providence staff member Tara Kainer is there faithfully, Wednesday after Wednesday, setting up tables, washing veggies, ensuring it all goes well. Providence Associate Susan Kennedy is involved lately as well. There are lots of familiar faces from Kingston’s food security community, on hand and ready to put good food into passing hands. This was a quiet day but typically about 200 people come buy. The rain doesn’t deter it nor did the heat of this past summer — though it wasn’t as pleasant as this fall day. The market ends at the start of October for another year.
