New Farmers’ Market at Upland High Focuses on Education, Fresh Produce

The new Upland Heritage Certified Farmers’ Market that opened at Upland High School on May 3 is much more than a place to browse through fresh fruits and vegetables.

Appropriately located on a school campus, it brings together education and the resources needed for community members to live healthier lives.

The Heritage Farmers’ Market at Upland High is the first such retail market featuring foods sold directly by farmers to consumers on a public K-12 campus in San Bernardino County, said Natalia Romuzga, a student at Claremont Graduate University who coordinated the project.

“We chose to do this at a school site because nutrition and education are inextricably linked and not mutually exclusive,” Romuzga said. “We’re hoping that students and their families connect the two and realize they now have access to a tremendous community resource.”

Featuring affordably priced fresh and local fruits, vegetables, herbs, flowers, eggs, honey and baked goods, the market is located at the north side of the high school campus along Foothill Boulevard. It will be open to the public every Saturday from 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

“What makes this farmers market different is that it truly breaks through the perceived barrier of affordability, as community members may use things such as EBT cards to purchase their food,” she said. “We want all community members to feel like they can purchase healthy, high-quality produce for themselves and their families.”

“We have been extraordinarily fortunate to work with Natalia Romuzga from Claremont Graduate University, who has facilitated lessons for our elementary students on farm-fresh vegetables and successfully executed her vision of bringing a farmers’ market to Upland,” said Upland Unified School District Superintendent Nancy Kelly.

“Working with Bing Turner and the Heritage Education Group, as well as our Nutrition Services Department, we are excited to bring a farmers’ market to our community. We are also very grateful to Randall Lewis of the Lewis Operating Corp. for his generous support in providing these internships throughout the Inland Empire,” Kelly said.

The farmer’s market is the culmination of a comprehensive nine-month project to educate students, their parents and the community about healthy living, and to provide them with the resources to come together as a family and make healthier nutritional decisions.

“This is an opportunity for the city, the schools and the community as a whole to come together to tackle the issue of childhood obesity,” said Romuzga, who will graduate from CGU with a Master’s in Public Health degree on May 17.

She said the genesis of the project began last October after she was selected as a Randall Lewis Health Policy Fellow and assigned to work in Upland. After meeting with Upland Community Services Director Roberta Knighten and UUSD Superintendent Kelly, she gained an understanding for Upland’s most important health priorities: namely, the issue of childhood obesity. Her educational focus in the areas of maternal and child health steered her to significantly progressive work with Kelly and the school district.

“Nancy was very engaged in moving forward with an initiative targeting childhood obesity in the schools and has been beyond supportive of my ideas and endeavors. Working with her has shown me what working with an exceptional community health-oriented team looks like,” said Romuzga.

“San Bernardino County is the fourth most obese county in the United States,” Robuzga said, citing a 2013 public health report by The Community Foundation for the San Bernardino-Riverside metropolitan areas. San Antonio Community Hospital’s annual needs assessment further defined the issue per city: “The percentage of overweight or obese children in Upland is 42.4 percent, which is an extremely significant cause for concern for both parents and school officials, as children receive between 35-50 percent of their nutritional intake at school,” she said.

Romuzga began her work by presenting health assemblies for third graders at each of the school district’s 10 elementary schools. She also developed a quarterly newsletter about nutrition that was aimed at educating parents.

“There were three parts to this project,” Romuzga said. “The health assemblies targeted individual behaviors of the children. A lot of kids had no idea what a beet was or the idea of composting or what processed foods were.”

The second component of the project targeted parents and the home environment. The nutrition newsletters feature easy healthy recipes that encourage kids to cook with their parents. There also is information about health-related events and other nutritional resources.

“The third facet is the launch of the farmers’ market, which is the biggest project we’ve been working toward,” Romuzga said. “We’re providing the community and kids with an environmental resource that will allow for them to purchase and cook with the fresh fruits and vegetables that they have been learning about. Kids will be able to talk with farmers and other vendors to learn more about the foods they are eating, along with other topics such as composting.”

Romuzga will lead a community-wide health-themed celebration to kick off the city’s focus on healthy living on Saturday, May 10. The event will commemorate the collaborative work between the city, the school district and other partners, including San Antonio Community Hospital, vendors and community stakeholders. It will be held at the Magnolia Recreation Center in Upland from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Heritage Farmers Market promotes health, nutrition and wellness through education programs and also oversees local markets in Ontario and at Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga. For more information, contact (909) 527-7193 or info@heritageeducationgroup.org and visit www.heritagefarmersmarket.blogspot.com.

For more information about the Upland Unified School District, please visit www.upland.k12.ca.us.