Portraits of Promise was created as a way to combat negative stereotypes associated with the City of Camden. It is a way for the Camden Promise Zone to highlight the good that is going on in the city particularly through those who choose to live and work in Camden. These people not only make Camden a colorful place to live, work, and visit, but they work hard to continuously make the city better through their commitment and determination to revitalize the city.
This month’s Portraits of Promise highlights Program Manager of Parkside Business & Community in Partnership program“Roots to Market”, Jonathan Wetstein. Beyond “Roots To Market” PBCIP recently was selected as apart of BUILD HEALTHS newest cohorts for 2019-2022. This new program “Roots to Prevention” believes that a healthcare provider’s fresh foods prescription program can strengthen urban agriculture in low-income areas. This is a collective approach led by PBCIP in conjunction with Virtua Health. Roots to Prevention will be able to connect food-growing organizations throughout Camden with selling their produce direct to Virtua Health’s Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program
Q:Can you explain what “Roots to Market” does or is?
A:“Roots to Market” is a non-profit, community-based initiative managed by Parkside Business & Community in Partnership (PBCIP) that helps Camden, New Jersey residents fix a broken food system for themselves by themselves. Beginning in 2013, Parkside's RTM initiative helps local residents learn how to participate in the local food economy through gardening, cooking and food product production education.
Recognizing that backyard gardening can get lonely, the Parkside Learning Garden was constructed. It is at this community facility that RTM members participate in a variety of programs while also growing ideas before growing food.
Without an adequately educated consumer to demand healthier foods and a trained gardening workforce to supply, success in creating a healthy local food system in Camden will continue to face significant challenges. We know a byproduct of gardening is a healthier diet.
Q:Can you explain what “Roots to Prevention” does or is?
A:Roots to Prevention (RTP)'s core team of partners includes leading community organization, Parkside Business & Community in Partnership (PBCIP); healthcare provider Virtua Health; local government and policy support from the Camden County Department of Health and Human Services; evaluation expertise from Rowan University’s Department of Health and Exercise Science; program implementation support from The Food Trust; and data-sharing services from the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers. This program will demonstrate how prescribing fruits and vegetables can positively impact the health and wellbeing of patients suffering from diet-related illnesses. Produce for the program will be partially supplied by local Camden farmers which will generate increased income and skill-building opportunities for those resident growers.
Q:Can you tell me a little about your background?
A:My background is in land use planning and urban design. For years I consulted municipalities on these issues. When the economy went south I wanted to get into the implementation side of these plans. So I went back to school in community and economic development. As part of the masters I had a capstone assignment and I came to Camden to work on it. I partnered with Camden Empowerment Corporation. This assignment turned into working with PBCIP to open up our learning garden. This led to working on activities to support urban agriculture.
Q:What motivated you to start/get involved with “Roots to Market”?
A:I was working on my capstone 8 years ago and PBCIP gave me the opportunity to work on . came to Camden I was working for free as an intern for My Capstone assignment at Penn State and I was involved with Camden Empowerment Corporation. They showed me that there was a strong need for community engagement through urban agriculture. In the context of the city you had a very high unemployment rate of younger people with limited access to the healthier more nutritious food options. Yet at the same time very close to a lot of restaurants in Philadelphia and Collingwood and surrounding suburbs. So the idea of urban farming made perfect sense because it was an equitable employment that didn't discriminate based on background like education.
So the idea of health-promoting employment through agriculture with the Parkside Learning Garden and this was essentially my capstone assignment. Which PBCIP in Parkside took notice of and invested in. A couple years later the garden was built and programming was needed so we created Roots to Market. Which really focused on the job creation through urban agriculture component. So less about the supply needs of healthy produce, but really trying to empower the residents to address that issue themselves with opportunities to make an income. Overtime, this will hopefully promote healthier eating habits like nutrition and all around just awareness about health promoting foods.
Q:What are your hopes for the organization as it grows?
A:It's to start to affect the systemic change in how urban gardens in Camden as well as throughout the US are supported. The future of this work rests in the hands of the health-care department. More specifically from a government side Health and Human Services are the branch of government that sees the relationship between food access as an upstream determinant of health outcomes. They're one of our biggest potential allies and advocates in strengthening and supporting urban agriculture. If we can do a better job at partnering and working more closely with the healthcare sector we're going to be able to see a tremendous increase in the presence and prevalence of urban agg activity. We will no longer be dealing with a handful of nonprofits that are struggling with limited resources such as capital because majority of urban farming activities rely on grants and a very limited number of those grants. so bringing onboard other agencies to help support them will alleviate this concern.
Q:What is the BUILD Health Challenge?
A:The BUILD Health Challenge is a unique national program focusing on bold, upstream, integrated, local, and data-driven projects that can improve community health. The BUILD Health Challenge award provides funding, capacity building support, and access to a national peer learning network to enhance collaborative partnerships here locally and address the city’s most pressing health challenges.
The BUILD Health Challenge is made possible with the support of: BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina Foundation, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation, Blue Shield of California Foundation, Communities Foundation of Texas, de Beaumont Foundation, Episcopal Health Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas, Inc., New Jersey Health Initiatives, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
Roots to Prevention (RTP) believes that the healthcare sector already has the resources to support a healthy local food economy. Health insurance programs supported through Medicaid’s Managed Long Term Services and Supports (MLTSS) can promote urban farming ventures and programming while healthcare facilities provide the demand for its produce.
Encouraging for-profit food growing alleviates contributing factors to chronic illnesses associated with “food insecure” households. These factors include: lack of access to fresh produce; limited income to purchase healthier food options; low demand to support local fresh food growers; and, fragmented gardening and nutrition programming. RTP’s partners have the capacity to address all four.
RTP seeks to unite Camden gardening organizations and neighboring healthcare providers to participate in a citywide Food Bucks Prescription (FBRx) and Hospital Produce Subscription (HPS) program. Because of partners like the Health Department and local non-profits, RTP is also connecting residents to both programs beyond the healthcare provider’s patient population.
