Prospect Park residents lack access to fresh produce

Fresh fruits and vegetables on display during the weekly University of Minnesota’s Farmers Market on the Gateway Plaza. FILE PHOTO BY JUSTINE VANCE, courtesy of Hubbard School.

By Gabriel Castilho / The Hubbard School

Prospect Park’s Fresh Thyme is an important supermarket for people who live in the boundary between Minneapolis and St. Paul. It is the only established store where they can buy fruits and vegetables.

“It’s inconvenient that I can only buy fruits here and I have to go to another store for many other items,” Prospect Park resident Shelley Warner said. “It doesn’t bother me, it's just inconvenient.”

The supermarket is part of a select group of establishments that sell fresh fruits near the University of Minnesota. On the University’s east bank one mile radius, only Dinkytown’s Target is also featured in this group.

According to the Healthy Foods, Healthy Lives Institute programs director Robin Schow, the University has a “wide variety of fast food, and probably some healthful choice around campus”

“I understand that there is low access for many students, but I think that the student lifestyle is not conducive to eating healthfully,” Schow said. “Because students are so busy, they are so concerned about getting good grades, they take huge course loads, they may or may not have time to eat, they lack sleep.”

To Isaac Scherfenberg, a junior student majoring in computer engineering, maintaining a healthy diet is hard during the school year.

“I attempt to care as much as I can,” Scherfenberg said. “It is when it gets really busy, especially in the school year, it is hard to keep the focus on that, because when I am busy studying for my engineering classes until fairly late it is sometimes really hard to prioritize taking a trip down there instead of just grabbing something from Chipotle.”

According to Scherfenberg, two years ago, when he used to live in Centennial Hall—a building part of the University’s Super Block—there was “absolutely nothing near it.”

“I do think it is a fairly limited amount for what I would expect around here,” he said. “It also becomes an issue how expensive Fresh Thyme is, which is quite bad.”

The lack of variety of stores to buy fresh produce in the area did not go unnoticed by the University.

On every Wednesday since July 10, the University of Minnesota has held the Farmers Market on the Gateway Plaza (outside of the McNamara Alumni Center), where visitors can buy seasonal produce, flowers, and more from local vendors, as well as enjoy live music and events. The event is expected to last until September 25.

“They grow beautiful, beautiful produce and they give a discount to students,” Schow said. “My understanding is that students also shop at the Trader Joe’s and get their produce downtown, which is not right on Washington Avenue, which is not far either from the west bank.”