The merchants at the Hunts Point Produce Market will once again come together to host the Annual ‘Hunts Point Gives Back’ event to distribute fresh fruits and veggies to the neighboring community.
The event will take place at Julio Carballo Little League Basketball Court at 1230 Lafayette Avenue to provide the residents of the Hunts Point with fresh, healthy, seasonal produce in advance of Thanksgiving on Saturday, November 17. Working closely with the Community Affairs Unit at the 41st Precinct as well as the Hunts Point Produce Market’s ‘Next Generation Committee,’ 2,000 bags containing more than 25,000 pounds of fresh produce will be assembled and distributed to the surrounding community.
Individual bags will be filled with fresh produce including: baking potatoes, acorn squash, butternut squash, carrots, ginger, chayote squash, cranberries, garlic, yams, rutabagas, Macintosh apples and oranges. In addition, each bag will contain helpful, easy-to-follow recipes.
Essentially, each bag contains ‘everything but the turkey’ for a nutritious Thanksgiving holiday meal.
To accomlish this undertaking the merchants at the Hunts Point Produce Market donated all the fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as worked with a steady stream of volunteers and market employees over the past few week, packing each bag individually.
The effort was extraordinary and all for a truly great cause. In striving to be a good neighbor, the Hunts Point Produce Market, which is one of the largest employers of Bronxites in the city, put together a well-oiled, timely plan.
It’s what the market wholesalers call “a way to give back to their community.”
The Hunts Point Produce Market is the the largest wholesale produce market in the world, sitting on a massive 113-acre parcel comprising of 1 million square feet of warehouse space.
The market offers a diverse selection of fruits and vegetables from around the globe.
Produce is delivered fresh daily via plane, boat, and tractor-trailer from 49 states and 55 countries. Through the years, the Hunts Point Produce Market has maintained the traditions of its predecessors, upholding the virtues of excellence, quality, hard work and family.
Some of the market’s business proprietors are second, third and fourth generation business people whose roots trace back to the famed Washington Market that preceeded the the Hunts Point Market and was located in lower Manhattan.
Open five days a week, 24 hours a day, Hunts Point Produce Market provides the freshest produce to New York City’s bodegas, upscale restaurants, restaurant suppliers, and secondary wholesalers just to name a few.
They also cater to the largest ethnically diverse region in the world with an estimated population of 22 million. The market’s clientele is as varied and vibrant as its produce.
Being part of the vast Bronx and city, the markets and its vendors feel it is their responsibility and honor to give back to the community.
In addition to the yearly give-back event, at the end of each business day, the Hunts Point Produce Market donates its unsold items to community organizations including City Harvest and the Food Bank for Westchester.
