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Faithfully Fresh Community Produce Market

Some folks, myself included, did knot know we had a community produce market in Frankford.  All the best neighborhoods have one.  It takes a group of dedicated volunteers to run something like that and I found those volunteers last Friday at the Allen M. Stearne Elementary School on Unity Street.  I was tipped off by Tracy O’Drain at the Frankford CDC and decided I had to have a look.

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Mrs. Taylor, Janice Gillyard, Mrs. Williams and the student volunteers

I was checking in at the school office where I met John Loftus of the Northeast Times.  Be sure to read his story this week.  He is a much better writer than I will ever be and has a professional photographer following him around too.  After I was cleared, I met Minister Janice Gillyard, Administrator of the Word of Faith Christian Center.

The event of the day was to see two sixth grade classes honored in a special assembly for the work that they have done working with the Faithfully Fresh Community Produce Market. The project was started in September of 2008 with this group of 27 students bagging produce, setting up displays and providing customer service for the market. The customers are their fellow students and teachers and some neighbors who take advantage of the mission of Faithfully Fresh which is to make healthy eating affordable for all.

The complete line of fruits and vegetables are sold for under $2.00. The hours are from 10:30 AM to 1:00 PM on Fridays.  Individual pieces of fruit are sold to kindergarten through sixth grade students at prices ranging from a dime to fifty cents. With all of the talk about childhood obesity, this may help.  At least  the young students have an opportunity to make healthier decisions about the foods that they eat.

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Volunteers setting up the market

I was impressed with these kids.  I’ve been in a few very good elementary schools over the last few years and this group was as well behaved as the best that I have seen.  Kudos to their teachers and Mrs Vaughn the principal for a great job.

The Faithfully Fresh Community Produce Market Operates under the auspices of A Work of Faith Community Development Corporation, a faith-based private, nonprofit corporation also known as Work of Faith. It was established in 2002 with a mission to improve the quality of life for families in the Delaware Valley by providing access to social and educational services through collaboration with neighborhood schools and community and city agencies.

The market also operates at the Word of Faith Christian Center, 4355 Paul St. on Saturday from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM and in front of Womrath Park on Friday from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM.

If you would like more information about this story you may contact: Minister Janice Gillyard, Administrator, Word of Faith Christian Center, 4355 Paul St. at 215-288-9690.

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Crime Alert

From Mike at the West Frankford Town Watch, this incident report from the Special Victims Unit.  Just to make you aware.

05/02/09 @ 8:50AM

09-15-45764

09-1567

5100 Leiper

16 year-old and 18 year-old sister’s report that an unknown male followed them and indecently assaulted them. Offender: b/m, 5’10, husky build, full beard; wearing a red Phillies hooded sweatshirt, tan pants.

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Aramingo Crossings Rises

It really annoys me that different places put the “s” at the end of Aramingo Crossing[s], but anyway, here’s an iPhone pick of a wall that is just now sprouting up out of the ground.  It seems odd because it’s coming up perpendicular to Aramingo Ave, I would have thought they’d push it to the back to get tons of parking in but what do I know.

Aramingo Crossings Wall

Now remember why we care about this even though it’s not in Frankford.  It’s REALLY CLOSE to Frankford.  We’re getting Fur-Niture Sir-Plus, which advertises on TV and dont’ get me started on Globe Dye Works and what’s going on in East Frankford.  Good things are happening, and they’re coming from the southwest.

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Frankford Health Care now Aria Health

Frankford HospitalIn what has surely been a long time coming, the Philadelphia Business Journal is reporting that Frankford Health Care Systems is changing it’s name to Aria Health.  They think the name “better reflects its dedication to providing the best clinical outcomes and personal experience in the greater Northeast Philadelphia and Bucks County region”.

You know, it is what is.  It’s fairly obvious the Frankford Hospital brand conjures thoughts of economic decline, especially to patients from Northeast Philly so you really can’t blame them.  But it just leaves me nostalgic for my own childhood.  My pediatrician had his offices on Oxford Ave.  The ear, nose and throat specialist who put my tubes in had his offices in Frankford too.  And they all worked out of our local Frankford hospital.

It really speaks to Frankford’s place in the Northeast.  Doctors offices once dotted the landscape.  But the times change, the Torresdale facility opened and stole all of the obstetrics away.  And the rest of the doctors went with them.  The same thing happened with Frankford(the neighborhood)’s residents.  They all went further and further into the Northeast.