Reconnect will be hosting a sustainability Farmer’s Market to connect students with fresh, local products.
The Farmer’s Market will be held Wednesday, Sept. 21 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will continue every third Wednesday of the month through November. The Farmer’s Market will be located outside of the Student Union facing the fountain.
“In the Farmer’s Market, we just try to connect students with fresh, local produce,” said Jessica Casanova, a senior sociology major. “One of our main goals is to provide local foods to our students here at Southeastern’s campus because there is not a lot of fresh foods here that are locally produced.”
One hope for the Farmer’s Market is that it will give a chance for students to experience something different in their eating options for a day.
“You go into the Union and you have the same things everyday, which is fine, but sometimes it is good to shake it up a little,” said Emma Larmann, a senior management major.
According to Alexis Taylor, a senior management major, the Farmer’s Market will have various vendors including hummus, breads, farm-eggs, pies, tea cakes, jams, jerky, produce, art and bath and body products that are all natural.
Casanova hopes that with having the Farmer’s Market once a month, it will create an alternative regularity option for students as well as help with the current food security issue.
The food security issue refers to not having enough sustainable, secure supply of safe, nutritious and affordable high-quality food using less land with environmental changes and declining resources.
According to Casanova, students will be able to get fresh foods at a variety outside of the new Marketplace that opened on campus at the start of the semester.
Reconnect, a student organization, meets weekly in Fayard Room 303 at 5 p.m. and all are welcome to attend.
“We try to educate ourselves and the community about the environmental awareness,” said Larmann. “We try to supply resources such as the Farmer’s Market and the community garden. We also do speaker events and also create a sense of community through those events that we do and with our meetings. We try to keep it like friends coming together talking about environmental awareness. Things that they’re interested in promote our mission.”
Reconnect is also connected with the community garden located inside the Sustainability Center on North Campus. The garden began after the Student Government Association was able to get the funds to help construct the community garden.
“Any student can sign up,” said Larmann. “Any student that wants to can sign up for the garden and they can plant whatever they want. We just ask that they keep things organic. We don’t use any pesticides or herbicides and we prefer heritage breed plants.”
Though registration has ended for the first Farmer’s Market of the semester, in the future, students can sign up for free tabling.
To learn more about the Farmer’s Market, the community garden found in the Sustainability Center or other activities of Reconnect such as weekly meetings, community service events, recycling programs or future questions, email [email protected].