Fresh food, fresh connections: Market Day brings healthy produce to local communities

Market Day, a program of Front Porch Community Services, promotes healthy eating by bringing weekly produce markets into neighborhood settings, including senior centers and affordable housing communities. More than a market, each site provides opportunities for connection, volunteerism and access to important resources.

Market Day has locations throughout Northern California and in Los Angeles. To promote accessibility for vulnerable populations, Market Day accepts EBT, electronic benefits for food assistance, at each site, and as part of its “mission within a mission,” donates all unsold produce to nonprofit partners serving vulnerable seniors.

The Market Day at Stoneman Village, a nonprofit retirement community in Pittsburg, celebrated 12 years in September. Along with fresh produce, shoppers received sweet treats and re-useable Market Day tote bags.

Market Day locations were recently re-opened for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic at Oak Center Towers in Oakland and Presidio Gate Apartments in San Francisco.

This year, Market Day partnered with Front Porch’s Operation Snowflake program to bring fresh produce baskets to some of Front Porch’s CARING Housing Ministries affordable housing communities. The baskets were designed with the dietary and cultural preferences of the residents in mind. Front Porch Support Services team members in both Northern and Southern California assembled the baskets and delivered them to residents.

Originally published in the Winter 2025 edition of Community Matters