Bringing easy, healthy recipes to life using locally sourced ingredients
The OSU-OKC Farmers Market at Scissortail Park is proud to announce its partnership with Shape Your Future. The new farmers market and Shape Your Future will collaborate with chefs across the Oklahoma City metro to show the public how to make simple, healthy recipes using locally-sourced ingredients from the farmers market.
Shape Your Future, a program of the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust (TSET), is a reliable source for tips that help Oklahomans live healthier, longer lives. Shape Your Future provides free resources on physical activity, nutrition, water consumption and living tobacco-free lifestyles. One focus of the program is encouraging Oklahomans to eat healthier by filling half their plates with fruits and vegetables.
"Eating fruits and vegetables and incorporating them into daily meals is a must to maintain a healthy lifestyle, and we are excited to partner with the OSU-OKC Farmers Market at Scissortail Park to help make this easy for Oklahoma families,” said Julie Bisbee, TSET executive director. “TSET's mission is to help improve the health of all Oklahomans. This partnership allows us to bring healthy recipes to life in a fresh, new way. That the cooking demonstrations are both easy to follow and the dishes simple to make at home with locally grown ingredients is a win-win.” Mary Bixler, Scissortail Park farmers market manager, says it is difficult to buy affordable, quality fresh food in downtown Oklahoma City.
“Downtown is one of the many food desserts in Oklahoma City. It is very important that we increase accessibility of fresh, local and nutrient-dense food to Oklahomans, and in order to do that we need access to this food as well as education on how to utilize and preserve it,” Bixler said. “We are very excited about our partnership with TSET’s Shape Your Future program. This is a great resource for the diverse communities of the larger Oklahoma City area because it will help teach people how to make use of local ingredients that we might otherwise not know how to work. Additionally, chefs will demonstrate how to be more sustainable in using all parts of the plant or animal so as to cut down on waste and maximize the utility of fresh, seasonal products.”
The new OSU-OKC Farmers Market at Scissortail Park is open every Saturday from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. through October. Products are entirely made or grown in Oklahoma, and many market members offer EBT/SNAP benefits. The market is also working on a partnership with Hunger-Free Oklahoma in order to facilitate “Double Up Oklahoma”, or DUO, a program that doubles the amount of EBT/SNAP benefits up to $20.
A drive-up loading zone called the “Veggie Valet” is available for guests for curbside package pickup on Oklahoma City Boulevard. After purchasing products from market members, customers can request the “Veggie Valet” service and park staff and volunteers will store items in a tent and place them in vehicles once customers pull up.
Live recipe demonstrations will take place every Saturday at the Love’s Travel Stops Stage at Scissortail Park sponsored by Shape Your Future. The time for these demos is still to be determined due to COVID-19.
To find the first recipe and step-by-step video, visit SYFOK.com/scissortail.