Members Ronene Smith (left) and Richard Smith bag fresh green beans in the parking lot of Mount Zion Lutheran Church in Tuc- son, Ariz. Customer Bonnie Windgren (inset) admires the fresh vegetables on display at the December Saturday market.
Rescued I
bounty
Market on the Move produces joyful disciples, grateful shoppers Text by Alison P. Martinez • Photos by Arturo Nevarez
t’s a sunny Saturday morning at Mount Zion Lutheran Church in Tucson, Ariz., and the parking lot at the foot of Cat Mountain is bustling like a farmers’ market.
Shoppers are lined up to approach long tables heaped high with squash, beans, tomatoes, melons and more. As fast as shoppers select from the bounty, volunteers pile up more.
T is is Market on the Move, where $10 entitles a shopper to 60 pounds
of high-quality, rescued produce. T e market moves from church to church because each site distributes produce only one Saturday per month. Toni Joyce and Fred Hall are the Mount Zion members coordinating
Market on the Move at the church. “We have fun with it,” Joyce said. “It’s hard work, a lot of it,” Hall continued, “but the volunteers look for-
ward to coming. We include everybody … willing to volunteer.” Some heave cases of produce from tall stacks down to display tables.
Some sort damaged items into the “free chicken feed” bin. T ose who use wheelchairs staff the money table. Children help their parents and talk with customers. “We work as a family and a village,” Joyce said. “We have a joyous
community.” Craig Larson, pastor of Mount Zion, agrees. “When I’m going up and down the line, talking with people, and Pastor Dan Valasakos (who also
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serves the congregation) is out directing traffi c, we’re just laughing because we’re doing. T is church is doers. Service is infused in every- thing we do.” Ethel Luzario is CEO of T e 3000
Club, which operates Market on the Move through 40 distribution sites around Tucson and Phoenix. “We work with churches whose main goal is to serve their community,” she said. “We’re sharing one vision: food rescue and fi lling the need of their community.” Every winter, Mexican farmers
send billions of dollars’ worth of fresh fruits and vegetables to U.S. markets. Half of it comes through the small border town of Nogales, Ariz. Some produce doesn’t fi nd a buyer. Maybe it’s not the preferred size or shape. Perhaps it’s not what’s in demand at the moment, like watermelon at T anksgiving. To truck unsold perishables to the dump would cost gas, labor and
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