More than $10,000 was raised for Community Food Connections through your generous involvement in the grand opening events. The silent auction alone raised more than $5,000. And over 200 people attended the Thursday evening fundraiser, hosted by Mayor Phil Gordon and Chef Christopher Gross.

Design and photo by Tom Martin of TMPDC, sign by Airpark Signs.

Support the Market with your United Way pledge at your workplace! Our # is 56528

Make pledges to:
Community Food Connections
P.O. Box 22216
Phoenix, AZ 85028
602-493-5231

Check with your employer as to how to sign up.

LISC Phoenix provided a $30,000 operating grant and brought the Arizona Community Foundation, St. Luke’s Health Initiatives and other funders to the table, raising a year’s worth of working capital for expanded operations. With operating funds in hand, CFC can now secure loan funds from the Industrial Development Authority of the City of Phoenix for tenant improvements to turn the spare brick building into a permanent Market Store.

For some photos from LISC’s newsletter, The Portal, please visit Slide Show.

Community Food Connections is proud to be a member of ONE Community – an interactive web and events community for gay, lesbian and allied individuals and corporations.

A million thanks to Austin Commercial and Tom Condon for taking care of the parking lots and being wonderful neighbors. We truly appreciate their support. Also, heartfelt kudos to Southwestern Litho – they provide storage, and the nuts and bolts help with trash and utilities to keep things clean and comfortable. And props to our landlord Kurt Schneider of Schneider & Schneider LLC, also, for everything, little and big…

Stop by the More of Arizona’s Best booths for McClendon’s Select Honey, Queen Creek Olive Mill items, Grady’s Barbeque, Urban Ovens and Fistiki Farms pistachios, including McClendon’s Select Bee Pollen, and honey comb, and Nuna’s Flavors’ salad dressing and marinade! You’ll find water, soda, (including Sonoran Brewery Root Beer) and Market t-shirts, re-usable market bags – big, bold and beautiful – they support the environment and the Market too – all at the Market’s Refreshment Palace!

When I moved to Phoenix some 30 years ago, small farms surrounded our West Phoenix neighborhood. We used to buy fruits and vegetables from a farmer-owned produce stand a few blocks from our house. I appreciated buying directly from the person who had grown the food. There was a certain charm to knowing that the farmer from whom I was buying had personally picked the corn I was serving for dinner that night. Unfortunately, those small farms are long gone, replaced by strip malls and houses.

You’ve probably heard that buying local is good for the economy because it supports local business, that it’s good for the environment because the food is usually produced in a more ecologically friendly manner and that it’s good for you because the food is fresher and contains more nutrients. Although the concept of offering locally grown foods has caught the attention of some of the big-box stores, the produce sold there is much like the stores themselves – grown on a large, commercial (and somewhat impersonal) farm. If you want fresh food at reasonable prices sold in a friendly atmosphere, then you’re going to love shopping at one of the many farmers markets around the Valley. (Read the full story)