One student took time to visit the Famers Market last Thursday
and fed organic jelly to a child.
The Lion's Roar / William Schmidt

The Farmers Market works with Reconnect and Pride Café to bring locally grown, organic and healthy options to campus not only during this semester’s Farmers Market but also for the spring semester. 

Last Thursday, the Farmers Market set up outside the student union to sell items such as simple syrups, fruit syrups, creole tomato basil jelly, sweet potato butter, turnips, greens and sweet potatoes.

The Farmers Market provided an opportune moment for students to buy healthy food as well as to learn what healthy food services will be available in the spring.

“A lot of people don’t have the opportunity to get healthy products from Pride Café,” said junior sociology major Priyanka Singh. “Everything here is not real food and since we are on campus all the time, we really don’t have access to go somewhere else. We want more options on campus. Since we have Pride Café and since we [will] have the option [of healthier food] we can make people feel better through healthier options.”

Pride Café will team up with Poché Farm to bring chemical free and organically grown products as well as adding new food options for students by allowing the option to create your own wrap for healthier foods.

Emily Vanlandingham, the CEO chef and owner of Locally Preserved, sold locally grown items at the Farmers Market. She hopes to spread the mission of helping local farmers while maintaining a healthy eating lifestyle in the South.

“Mr. Burley invited me to speak to his class about sustainability and society and after the class, the students asked me to come back and participate in the Farmers Market,” said Vanlandingham. “Locally Preserved is an all natural food manufacturing business. Everything that we use and make is locally grown from our region: Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama. Everything has five or fewer all-natural ingredients based on the seasonal growing calendar. Our mission is to sustain all the regional farmers and help create different revenue streams for them to be able to make a living and still farm.”

Along with providing healthier food choices for Southeastern, Reconnect also hopes to raise awareness of other environmental issues.

According to the article “The Challenge of Real Food at a Southern University” found on the civileats website, “Reconnect garnered the help of students in Dr. David Burley’s graduate class in Applied Environmental Sociology and decided to focus more on educating the student body about food system issues. We engaged in educating the campus about a broad spectrum of food system issues–labor, local economy, environment and health–not just nutrition.”

To find more about Reconnect, visit their Facebook page. For more information about Vanlandingham’s business of Locally Preserved, visit her website locallypreserved.com.