This is my favorite longford story of the week, and a great reminder to always challenge your own assumptions and biases (including that “fair trade” is a well-known concept):
Two days each week, a flatbed truck pulls up to one of the high-rise apartment buildings in downtown Wheeling. The sides fold down and buckets filled with corn, cucumbers, peppers, onions, potatoes, melons and cabbage spill onto the sidewalk.
The set-up is one of Grow Ohio Valley’s outreach efforts — another chance to bring fresh produce to more neighborhoods downtown. But some seniors who live in buildings like Montani Towers are still trying to figure out this “group of hippies.” One woman saw the words “Fair Trade” on a poster advertising some of the imported items sold at Grow Ohio Valley’s mobile market and tried to barter her folding chairs for sweet corn.