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SCHENECTADY
Greenmarket gets grant for new market in Bellevue
BY BETHANY BUMP Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Bethany Bump at 395-3107 or bbump@dailygazette.net.

    The planned expansion of the Schenectady Greenmarket into Bellevue is a go, now that it has been awarded nearly $7,000 from the state, and it will open some time next month.
    The expansion of the downtown market to the city neighborhood was just one of 34 projects across the state to obtain funding through the state’s FreshConnect grant program, which increases access to New York farm products for residents in low-income areas and areas that are underserved by food retailers.
    Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the grants Thursday, calling the winning projects creative and local solutions that will bring fresh and healthy food to areas with limited supermarket access.
    “This is really a win-win situation for farmers and for families across the state as we try to provide more access and easier access to locally grown, fresh farm products,” he said in a release.
    Cuomo launched the program last year to create more farmers’ markets and support those already available to high-need areas. A total of 48 projects across the state will now benefit from the program with the most recent round of awards.
    “The board is super excited about it because frankly when we started Schenectady Greenmarket almost four years ago, in the backs of our minds we always wanted to expand into other neighborhoods,” said Betsy Henry, chair of the Schenectady Greenmarket board of directors. “This is such a perfect opportunity for us because we’ve got the interest and the engaged board and we have an active neighborhood association there.”
    Three other Capital Region projects were awarded FreshConnect grants.
    The Sharon Springs Farmers Market was awarded nearly $10,000, after the small market was devastated during the fl oods last year. It offers local food in a low-access area of Schoharie County and the grant will help cover a 50 percent Food Stamp match program. The market will open in early June on Main Street across from the Roseboro Hotel.
    Also awarded $10,000 each were the Capital District Coop in Menands and the Cooperative Community Food Compact Inc. in Nassau.
    The program expansion yielded more than 121 proposals this year, but provided funding only to the top projects that showed innovative solutions for communities in need.
    The Schenectady Greenmarket, which sells locally grown products indoors at Proctors during the winter and outside near City Hall the rest of the year, has been looking to expand its operation to another city neighborhood without access to a grocery store.
    For a while, people thought that neighborhood would be Hamilton Hill, but it was found that Bellevue is actually more of a “food desert” with nothing within walking distance.
    The Greenmarket board voted in March to apply for a state grant for the Bellevue market, and planned to have it running by June. Henry said she thinks the Schenectady project was a grant recipient because the city’s Greenmarket is already well established.
    “We basically have the infrastructure to make it possible and we have a very active board that is willing to get involved with the satellite,” said Henry. “And really there’s a need in Bellevue.”
    The market would operate from 3 to 6 p.m. Thursdays out of the parking lot of the former Immaculate Conception Church on Broadway.
    FreshConnect project applicants received extra points in the ranking process for including a food donation program in their proposed project.
    As a result, nearly all recipients of Fresh-Connect funding will be coordinating a local food donation program to connect food pantries or food banks with New York farm products.
    Because they’re geared toward lowincome neighborhoods, the projects will accept food stamps and are encouraged to accept Women, Infants and Children Fruit and Vegetable Checks, Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program coupons and Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition coupons.
    The program also offers FreshConnect Checks, a nutrition incentive that provides a $2 rebate check for every $5 in food stamps spent at participating markets. ............................>>>>........................>>>>................................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01401&AppName=1

Great news for both Schenectady and Sharon Springs.  

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

Great news for both Schenectady and Sharon Springs.  

shoo scat stinky troll .........you're irrelavant.........

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

Great news for both Schenectady and Sharon Springs.  

Hells yeah!

I can see that $5M defecit shrinking already!

Amirite?

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

Great news for both Schenectady and Sharon Springs.  

Oh my god, the cheerleader for spending the taxpayers' money is back!!!!!!!

Quote from the story:

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  "...now that it has been awarded nearly $7,000 from the state..."  

As a person who does NOT pay taxes, you obviously don't care that the word "state" in that quote means THE TAXPAYERS' MONEY !!!!

Where do you think the "state" gets the money from?    Does money grow on trees?

You claim it's "great news"  ?????

Tell us, all the millions of dollars of the TAXPAYERS' money spent on downtown, tell us how that worked out?    You cheered for the spending of the taxpayers' money and now the city is $5 MILLION in the hole, but that's all good?

Tell us how many stealing from the taxpayers to have this greenmarket is going to increase the TAXABLE tax base in the city.   Tell us how it will raise property values in the city.   Is it going to result in a flood of people from outside the city choose to buy a house in the city????  

From where to you get your brain that you think that these things is good.   Produce the EVIDENCE.....WITH documentation..... to PROVE why and how it is good.   Show us the numbers.   Show us the impact on the TAXABLE tax base, the property values, the tax BILLS.

Well?????    Of of course, total silence.



.

Any reasonable and intelligent person would understand that greenmarkets promote LOCAL growers and producers AND encourage people to buy and eat healthy food.   This is a great use of taxpayer money because it supports SMALL LOCAL farmers and producers.  New York State needs to invest monies in support of its once great Agricultural Industry.   I am hoping that next year 10 times more money is budgeted for this program so that MANY MORE greenmarkets can be established across the state.

Quoted from DemocraticVoiceOfReason

Any reasonable and intelligent person would understand that greenmarkets promote LOCAL growers and producers AND encourage people to buy and eat healthy food.   This is a great use of taxpayer money because it supports SMALL LOCAL farmers and producers.  New York State needs to invest monies in support of its once great Agricultural Industry.   I am hoping that next year 10 times more money is budgeted for this program so that MANY MORE greenmarkets can be established across the state.

You don't seem so quiet to me on this one!  I kind agree, this seems like a little money for a good cause, which, has to be against the motto of schenectady government (lots of money for no cause!)

I'm sure that most folks agree that Green markets are a plus. However......this is just another smoke and mirror gazetto piece to cover up the financial collapse in the city. The liberal democrats have OVER SPENT AND OVER TAXED and have no place to turn. If they raise the taxes or add fees again, they will find themselves with even more vacant properties in addition to the hundreds they have now.

So how is this Bellevue neighborhood, where property taxes are so high, the the home values are so low, going to help them? And might I add that green markets aren't 'cheap'!! In fact they are on the pricey side.

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And might I add that green markets aren't 'cheap'!! In fact they are on the pricey side.

^5 .....thanks for pointing that out...................my sister goes quite frequently yet rarely comes home with fresh produce.........it's much cheaper at Gades or the many local farm stands

That's the shame of being such screw ups.  Even when they invest little money in something good you have to look at them sideways, knowing that when you financially f everything up, you can't really spend money on things you should.  They should invest (the state) 7k in this, in relative terms, that is one of the smallest investments you will see by the state in something, it's peanuts.   But again, when everyone is just screwing it up all the time, we have no money to make the investment in these neighborhoods where it is needed.  

Take from me everything, and i'll have nothing to give you when needed.

Quoted from BuckStrider

Hells yeah!I can see that $5M deficit shrinking already!Amirite?

Crisis what crisis? This is not as bad as Mayor Al's $700,000 shortfall according to the DEM morons. McCarthy has a new plan! A new pothole fee and increase the number of DEM hack Code enforcers preying on elderly City homeowners. No word on selling the DEM Friends and Family car fleet or free cell phone plan. We await comment from Finance Chair Karl Erickson {in Hong Kong} or charity shop destroyer Marion Poterfield.

Quoted from bumblethru

I add that green markets aren't 'cheap'!! In fact they are on the pricey side.

You can always buy blue berries from Chile at the supermarket.  Chile produce will often be cheaper, but
was picked a week ago, compared to yesterday at a farmers market.  
Every local blueberry, apple or corn farmer, will spend his money locally, instead of the ultimate profit ending up
in South America.
The more dollars that keep circulating locally, the better for all of us.

I like the idea of a co-op much more..........my niece-in-law belongs to one in Baltimore, and I don't know exactly how it works, she pays $x yearly, in return she gets x amount of farm fresh produce depending on what's in season, they deal directly with the farmers...........................much cheaper according to her.......................I buy very little supermarket produce in the cold months, just basic stuff............in the growing months, we go to Gades and the local farm stores, I freeze and can as much of that as possible, our experience has been the Schenenctady Greenmarket though a good idea just isn't cost effective for us....

Quoted from Box A Rox

Every local blueberry, apple or corn farmer, will spend his money locally, instead of the ultimate profit ending up
in South America.
The more dollars that keep circulating locally, the better for all of us.

The money saved buying cheaper Chilean blueberries will be spent locally too - BY ME.  Box, I agreed with your freshness argument, but your economic argument was unsound as usual.  

Quoted from CICERO

The money saved buying cheaper Chilean blueberries will be spent locally too - BY ME.  Box, I agreed with your freshness argument, but your economic argument was unsound as usual.  

Agreed.  Another example of outside partiys making money.  How many of these farmers live and operate in Schenectady County?