Not quite seismic, but definitely a shift underway at CitySeed in New Haven, Connecticut’s premier farmers’ market system. It’s celebrating its fifth anniversary this summer and recently moved into new offices, but it is also bidding a temporary goodbye to its founding executive director Jennifer McTiernan.
McTiernan and family are headed to Berkeley, Calif. – land of Alice Waters and fresh citrus in March — where McTiernan’s husband, an architecture professor at Wesleyan, is spending a sabbatical year as a visiting professor at UC Berkeley.
It may be concerning news for locavores in the New Haven area, but totally fitting as far as McTiernan is concerned. “Berkeley is where CitySeed really began,” she said. The seed, as it were.
Jennifer McTiernan on right
In the summer of 2002 McTiernan, who was an admissions officer at Yale at the time but had already been bitten by the local food bug, wound up apprenticing at Alice’s place — Chez Panisse. “When I came back to New Haven, the one question in my mind was ‘what am I gonna eat now?’” McTiernan said. A very worthy question given the Tao of Alice – eat what’s around you when it’s in season. Of course you can get away with that big-time in California, but even now with our enlightenment, in the winter-prone northeast it can be a little problematic. “It took a year-and-a-half to answer that question.”
The answer – which McTiernan devised with three other people – was an idea for a farmers’ market at Wooster Square and a non-profit entity – CitySeed – to run it.
Wooster Square farmers' market
They started both in 2004, followed by three more weekly markets in 2005. And now CitySeed weekly brings more than 45 Connecticut farms and producers to the markets.
But CitySeed has become more than just — let’s face it – fresh food for folks who can afford it. More uniquely than most other markets – it has developed as its mission a whole commitment to bringing fresh food to the underserved population that either can’t normally get it or can’t afford it.
To that end there is a whole range of educational and service programs that delivers fresh produce to economically challenged people, runs food and farm education programs for pre-scholars, has been a model for allowing WIC and Food Stamp use at markets, and generally has created a market system paradigm that other communities in the state are now trying to emulate.
“People say to me: ‘you changed what people eat in New Haven,’” McTiernan said. And I say: ‘really?’ And they’ll say ‘yes,’” McTiernan almost giggles.
“Honestly, I think I’ll have a deeper appreciation and understanding for the kind of work we’re engaged in with CitySeed once I get some distance from it.”
Erin Wirpsa
Eisenberg is already on board as executive director – though she was introduced with pizza in the office parking lot and an open house August 3.
CitySeed offices
McTiernan said it would be good to have a fresh set of eyes and someone with different skills in the position.
And looking back on the five years during which CitySeed went from a startup to an established organization and the markets themselves gained recognition as among the nation’s best, McTiernan said that what really strikes her is she’s helped make people feel more connected to food and where it comes from.
“Over the past five years the culture of eating in New Haven has changed — everything from farmers’ markets to school foods,” she said. “I feel like the biggest lesson I can take from CitySeed is this powerful idea that a community can make change.”
