A second go around for a food pantry/fresh food market! Much like my last post, my classmates and I recently spent a lovely few hours working with the kind folks over at the Mid-Ohio Market at Norton Road in the west side of the Columbus area. This time, we had the added bonus of having our friends from Norway accompanying us to supply the many folks seeking fresh foods for their families, as well as providing free-of-charge screening for some key health indicators in blood pressures and blood sugar readings.
A much larger, higher-scale market compared to our previous experience, the Mid-Ohio Market provided a vastly different experience, coinciding with the differences amongst different food banks that I alluded to in my last post. Mid-Ohio opts for a sprawling, warehouse style set up, more reminiscent of a traditional grocery store. After being funneled toward registration at the inlet, patrons are allowed to enter the main body of the store, shopping at their pace and flow. However, the familiar item limits were still present, ensuring that as many people as possible have their chance at the fresh foods of their choosing.
I did not watch over the corn this time, some volunteers from Ohio Health had that honor, and instead participated at our station for measuring blood pressures and blood sugars. Not every patron took us up on our offers, but we had a reasonable number of folks coming through looking to see how their numbers were looking. Some were diabetics using this as one of their daily blood sugar checks, others were folks who were just a little curious. Regardless of their reasoning to visit us, my peers and I had a lot of fun providing the measurements, some education, and even cracking our fair share of jokes with all the kind people who did. 
The slower pace of the institution certainly was a change from the All People’s Fresh Market that we had helped at previously, but this was not necessarily a negative. We were able to spend more time with each patron who came through, answering questions, conversing, and catching a glimpse of the wide range of personalities and life experiences that they each have to share with us. I truly enjoyed myself working alongside my Norwegian friends in contributing to the health of this community in what ways we could that day.
Sustainable Goal 2.2 states, “By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons”. Much like my previous post, I believe that food banks like the Mid-Ohio Market are shining examples of the ideals set forward in these nutrition/hunger bases sustainable goals. One further difference I noted between our previous experience at a food bank was the more pronounced amount of patrons that were younger, and with families with them. The number of children accompanying on the day really drove home to me how important these markets can be to aiding in feeding hungry, growing mouths. Ensuring that these families have access to healthy foods is huge in allowing these children may grow and develop into healthy adults in the future.