ENJOYMENT, APPETITE AND HEALTHINESS
Wholesale Market Events

Promotions at street markets

It’s not that hard to eat a healthy diet. That is the message that Hamburg Wholesale Market promotes on its tour round the region’s street markets. “Healthy variety and freshness”, is the watchword when staff talk to people about how important and how delicious it is to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. The team is assisted by home economists and nutritionists presenting tasty sample meals; if shoppers wish, they can have their body fat measured free of charge and receive some individual advice about healthy eating. Naturally the staff from Hamburg Wholesale Market are well prepared to answer consumers’ queries: how can I tell if a pineapple is ripe? What pollutants do fruit and vegetables contain these days?

Hamburg Wholesale Market’s tour round the region introduces consumers to the unique freshness and variety of the produce traded at the wholesale market, which then goes on sale at street markets and greengrocer shops or is served in good restaurants. The campaign, which has been a great success for the past 5 years, aims to make the general public more aware of the role fruit and vegetables play in a healthy diet. Apart from expert advice, there is also informative material from the initiators of the “5 a day” campaign, who are convinced that 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day can reduce the risk of cancer.

Kindergarten initiative

Hamburg Wholesale Market takes its “World of Fruits” on tour around Hamburg’s pre-school facilities. For five years the fruit experts from Hamburg Wholesale Market have been teaching children about the various kinds of fruit and vegetables there are, about the vitamins and nutrients they contain and where the delicious, healthy snacks are grown.

The “Fruit box” is part of the equipment the fruit experts take along when they visit. Without being able to see what is inside, the children are invited to feel the various fruits in the box and try to guess what they are. Using a placard with a map of the world, the children are shown what fruits and vegetables grow in what climate zones.

The youngsters can trace in their colouring books how far the fruit and vegetables must travel before they arrive at Hamburg’s street markets and greengrocer shops.

And of course the children receive prizes for taking part – delicious fruit and vegetables, fresh from the Wholesale Market. This initiative represents a playful approach to teaching children the basics of healthy eating and, so we hope, when they next go shopping together, the youngsters will prod their parents to buy fruit and vegetables or to pack more in the bag.

School beginners’ initiative

Hamburg Wholesale Market for Fruit, Vegetables and Flowers visits the school-beginners’ classes at the start of the new school year to distribute lunch boxes and fruit to feed the brain. Altogether Hamburg Wholesale Market has given some 12,000 “new” schoolchildren a present of fresh fruit on their first day at school for a vitamin-rich start to their education.

Not only is the first day at school a uniquely exciting and special experience for the eager children, kitted out with their colourful, cone-shaped “goody bags” and smart new satchels. Parents, siblings and grandparents are equally anxious to see the youngsters, who suddenly seem more grown up, find their feet in this new world. And so, while the children are having their very first lesson, the new schoolchildren’s relatives are treated to fresh fruit, offering them a healthy way to sweeten the wait until they can scoop the children in their arms again and hear all about the teacher and the timetable.

Cookery courses for young families

Healthy, balanced food does not have to be expensive. With this in mind, Hamburg’s community outreach facilities regularly offer cookery courses for young mothers. Each course comprises several lessons given by experts on the basics of cooking; the women prepare meals together and pick up some good ideas on providing wholesome food that doesn’t cost much. The courses, already in their third year and a great success, are coordinated by the meals for the needy charity Hamburger Tafel.

To assist families with little money to spare, the course costs only five euros. With professional guidance, the participants in the weekly lessons spend around three hours learning how to prepare some delicious meals that cost little in the way of money or effort. And the women greatly appreciate the opportunity to talk to other young women and to meet regularly as a group. The courses offer a bit of a break from daily routine. Many of the participating women are already known to community workers at various facilities and are personally invited to join the courses.

The ingredients are given by the Hamburger Tafel and come straight from Hamburg Wholesale Market, which has supported the cookery initiative from the very beginning by supplying fresh fruit and vegetables. At the end of every session the “students” are rewarded for their efforts by being invited to join together in eating the dishes they have prepared. So that they can repeat the newly learnt recipe at home the next day, every participant is given the ingredients she’ll need for the new dish, together with a small, basic set of cooking utensils, such as the cookery book published by Hamburger Tafel and Hamburg Wholesale Market “Einfach-günstig-lecker” (easy, cheap, delicious).