New Roots, Fresh Stop Market

In 2015, the Community Foundation of Southern Indiana released the 2015 Assessment of Needs and Priorities in Clark and Floyd Counties. Having this comprehensive needs assessment revealed who we are as a community and the role the Community Foundation can have within it.

Now we know how we can create positive growth – by focusing on the areas of basic human needs, education, workforce development, healthful living, economy and arts and culture – and where to invest our grants to provide the most impact for our community.

This past year, organizations addressing our community’s needs received more than $269,000 in grants from the Community Foundation of Southern Indiana’s Community Impact Fund which provides support for the greatest needs of our community. New Roots, a local organization, was one of those deserving organizations. According to the Needs Assessment, more than 26,000 people in Clark and Floyd Counties are food insecure, including 9,140 children – New Roots is working to address that need. Karyn Moskowitz, the organization’s founder and executive director said, “We work with fresh food insecure communities to create sustainable systems for accessing the farm-fresh food we all need to be healthy and happy.”

Because of the support from the Community Foundation, New Roots was able to establish a weekly Fresh Stop Market in New Albany, serving 150 Southern Indiana families. Like their other sliding scale pop up markets, New Roots’ New Albany Fresh Stop Market connects families facing limited resources (and others who pay more into the pool) to over 50 farmers so they can access farm-fresh food right in their neighborhood, every other week. Since these Markets are co-created and sustained by individuals from the community, this helps provide leadership opportunities to individuals and families with limited resources and a passion for food justice, as well as access to affordable, organic, farm-fresh healthy food.

The Community Foundation is using the 2015 Assessment of Needs and Priorities to identify our greatest needs and supporting organizations, like New Roots, who are working to address those needs. Ms. Moskowitz said, “No matter what your income level or what you can afford to pay, everyone gets the same amount of fresh, healthy and local produce. Nobody is turned away.”