Eastsider Koby Bluitt knows buying healthy and local food can be overwhelming.
She started Meals from the Motha in 2022 — a vegan education and catering company. She holds cooking demonstrations that help people get more familiar with healthy eating.
People will ask her where to buy fresh food. She often recommends farmers markets, but said those can sound intimidating for some, especially for the Black community.
“It can sound like this is a white people thing, like white people go to the farmers market,” Bluitt said. “No, we all go to the farmers’ market. We all gotta eat. We all want nourishment.”
She wanted to make shopping for healthy food fun for people, so she also started Meet Motha at the Market — a series of meetups that began this summer to help folks navigate the city’s farmers markets.
“This is for everybody, but especially for people who have never been,” Bluitt said. “This is for people who want to go, but don’t want to go by themselves. So, let’s shop together.”
In August, Bluitt began hosting a meetup at different markets around Indianapolis. To build a sense of community, attendees were encouraged to wear a different color to each market.
Bluitt created a checklist to encourage intentional shopping. Buying fruit, identifying how you will use the produce and asking a farmer a question — those were some of the tasks people could mark off their list.
Bluitt likes to talk to the vendors of each farmers market booth she visits. She’ll ask them about their product, ask for growing tips or just chat. There’s something special about knowing where your food comes from, she said.
“You can meet the farmer,” Bluitt said. “You can actually ask questions like how do you grow this? What do you use to actually make it reach its full maturity?”
The meetups also serve as a way to meet people and check out things different markets have to offer. Some markets have live music, others have health resources like blood pressure checks.
LaQuita Burnett attended the Aug. 20 meetup at the Fort Ben Farmers Market in Lawrence. This was Burnett’s first time at this market, she usually goes to the farmers market in Broad Ripple.
Her haul that Thursday consisted of peaches, plums and local honey. She said she really liked the meetup.
“It’s very interactive, and it makes shopping at the farmers market more fun,” Burnett said. “I usually come by myself or with my kids. So, this is very cool.”
‘Healthcare starts in the kitchen’
Autumn Lowry owns From the Ground Up Foods, a Black-owned urban farm on the east side of Indianapolis. After a wave of recalls on some produce that were causing foodborne illnesses this summer, Lowry noticed an uptick in people becoming curious about local farms. But she has also seen some hesitation to try new things.
“A lot of people, they’ll come by, they’ll look at our table, but they won’t really ask questions,” Lowry said. “Or they may ask what something is, but then they won’t buy it because they don’t know what to necessarily do with it.”
To help people try new things, Lowry started offering samples at her booth. For example, if she has tomatillos, she’ll use it to make salsa for people to try.
Lowry has met Bluitt several times at various farmers markets and events. She said Bluitt’s meetups are a great way to introduce people to healthy food and local farmers, including Black farmers. She said this is especially important as the Black community faces a disproportionate rate of chronic illnesses like diabetes.
“A lot of people don’t know we’re here, and they don’t know that we’re growing for our health and wellness,” Lowry said. “I think that there’s a little more intentionality in how and what we’re growing for our communities.”
Meals from the Motha’s motto is “healthcare starts in the kitchen.”
Bluitt started her own health journey in 2019. She wanted to eat better to help her skin, feel confident in her body and get healthier. Learning to cook vegan meals for herself is what led her to start her company.
Now, she wants to keep helping other people on their own healthy food journey.
If you go
The last Meet Motha at the Market event this summer will be from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m Sept. 20 at the Bodi Buzz and Rooted Legacy urban farm, 865 N. German Church Road. More information about Meals from the Motha and future events can be found on the organization’s Facebook page.
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Mirror Indy reporter Darian Benson covers east Indianapolis. Contact her at 317-397-7262 or darian.benson@mirrorindy.org. Follow her on X @HelloImDarian or on Bluesky @darianbenson.bsky.social.
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