IPSWICH — For an hour and a half each Tuesday afternoon, a farmers market appears at the Agawam Village public housing complex on Route 1A.
Gloucester-based The Open Door food pantry brings in free fruit and vegetables each week, hoping to reach those who struggle to put food on the table, especially fresh produce.
Judging by the line of people who queue up an hour before the market opens, the program seems to be a success. Last year, The Open Door's "mobile market" served 153 Ipswich families over the course of the summer and fall at Agawam Village.
"It's designed to help people right where they live," said Julie LaFontaine, The Open Door's executive director. "We want to make an environment in which people feel good about getting help. By putting them in a farmers market setting, it makes it more socially acceptable."
The Open Door's "mobile market" at Agawam Village is one of eight they set up around Cape Ann through the summer and fall. Agawam Village's first mobile market of the season was yesterday, and it will return each Tuesday from 4 to 5:30 p.m. through the week of Thanksgiving.
Produce is given free to residents of the Oak Hill apartments, Agawam Village and other public housing in town. The Open Door works with the Ipswich Housing Authority to register residents for the program and ensure they meet low-income qualifications, LaFontaine said.
"(The mobile market) provides fresh fruit and vegetables but also a sense of community and place," she said. "There is a lot of community that develops out of the market day."
Fresh produce can be an out-of-reach item for the low-income population, LaFontaine said.
"When people are struggling to make ends meet, getting to the grocery store or food pantry can be a hard thing," she said. "Vegetables can be an expensive piece of your food budget."
Produce for the mobile markets is donated by local farms, such as Appleton Farms in Ipswich and the Food Project, which uses teens and volunteers to farm parcels across Greater Boston, including in Beverly and Ipswich; The Open Door also purchases produce wholesale.
The Danversbank Foundation sponsors the mobile market in Ipswich.
A cooking demonstration is done at each mobile market, showing how the week's produce can be used. In Ipswich, where many of the mobile market patrons are elderly, they focus on the basics, such as potatoes, onions and carrots, LaFontaine said.
In other locations, where more children are present, pantry staff try to expose them to as many varieties of fruits and veggies as possible.
One of the most popular recipe demonstrations has been a "Shrek shake," named for the green ogre, which blends orange juice, mango and fresh spinach.
"The kids will line up to drink a Shrek shake," LaFontaine said. "It's a good day in any community when kids will line up to drink spinach."
The Open Door has operated a food pantry in Gloucester since 1978, open to residents of Gloucester, Rockport, Manchester, Essex and Ipswich. LaFontaine said the pantry serves roughly 100 Ipswich households each year.
Ipswich also has a local food pantry, which operates out the basement of the United Methodist Church on North Main Street.
The mobile market is meant to be "complementary" to the work existing food pantries are already doing, she said.
Staff writer Bethany Bray can be reached at bbray@salemnews.com and on Twitter @SNewsBethany.
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