Pathways Update: Breadbasket Farmers Market
Left to right: Virginia Barnes, Director of Blue Health Initiatives; Mary Tyler, Market Manager; Scarlet Manker, Assistant Market Manager; and Sarah Karns, Pathways Coordinator and Heartland Healthy Neighborhoods Director.
In its first year as an farmers’ market, Breadbasket Farmers Market has become a Pathways to a Healthy Kansas partner and grantee. In exclusively selling locally grown fruits and vegetables, accepting SNAP benefits, offering a tobacco-free campus, and being located near the bus line, the Breadbasket is an ideal partner to Pathways and Heartland Healthy Neighborhoods focusing on a healthier, more active Shawnee County.
Find out more about the Pathways effort in Shawnee County by reading the latest impact report: https://www.bcbsks.com/documents/2022-shawnee-county-impact-report
About Pathways to a Healthy Kansas
"The Pathways initiative, known as Pathways to a Healthy Kansas, is the largest community grant initiative ever funded by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas. It combines community-wide, evidence-based solutions and practices to help Kansas communities improve active living, healthy eating, and tobacco prevention. The initiative provides community coalitions with the tools and resources needed to engage their communities and remove barriers to healthy living. Pathways started in 2016 with eight communities and expanded to 16 communities in 2017. In 2020, the Pathways initiative started a second phase of work with a total of 24 communities – 12 new and 12 returning communities from across the BCBSKS service area. Blue Cross provides each community with technical assistance for planning, evaluation, communications and measurement through partnerships with Wichita State University's Community Engagement Institute, Kansas Health Institute, Seed 2 Roots and other organizations." Find out more at https://www.bcbsks.com/blue-health-initiatives/pathways/pathways-to-a-healthy-kansas
Access to nutritious foods and physical activity opportunities is one of the social determinants of health. The Food Pathway addresses that determinant by supporting nutrition programs; advocating for policies and practices that promote health; and promoting broader efforts to support access to, production of, and consumption of healthy foods. This includes the establishment and support of farmers markets. Farmers markets provide communities with sources of locally grown, fresh produce during the growing season while also providing local producers with additional retail opportunities to sell their produce. The success of a local farmers market depends on the availability of fresh produce, a commitment from local community members to buy produce at the market, and access to a space for the farmers market to operate. Farmers markets that accept EBT and other food benefits can create opportunities for low-income community members to obtain fresh, local and healthy food.