Madison Hahamy Photo
The farmers’ market in action.
With music, grilling, and plenty of food and groceries, the Community Soup Kitchen Tuesday kicked off a new biweekly farmers’ market initiative.
The market will take place on biweekly Tuesdays from 10:30 a.m. to noon outside the kitchen’s 84 Broadway location.
The market offers regular patrons hamburgers, hotdogs, ribs, lemonade and more immediate food for people to consume on the spot. But the main goal is to ensure that clients can eat more than the one meal a day the soup kitchen currently provides (weekday lunches, Saturday breakfasts). So the farmers’ market also provides boxes of cereal, loaves of bread, boxes of pasta, produce, and even socks and other personal hygiene items for people to take home.
Nellie Conover-Crockett with cereal boxes to go.
“We’ve created a family culture,” said Joshua Watkins, interim executive director of CSK.
Interim Executive Director Joshua Watkins.
This Tuesday was the first of what Watkins hopes is an even more expansive free community market.
Tuesday’s first market day, advertised primarily through word of mouth, hit over 10,000 meals — far more than their normal 3,000.
The majority of the food and personal care products were donated by two partner organizations of the 11 with which the soup kitchen works.
The initiative also includes vaccination signups for eligible clients. The crew was also handing out masks, hand sanitizer, and enforcing social distancing.
Dining Room Manager Robert “Poncho” Jackson said he considers the market a way in which CSK can ensure that extra food and donations don’t go to waste, as well as alleviate some of their worries surrounding additional meals for clients, especially those with access to a kitchen.
Carmelita Taylor and Lydia Cooper, two volunteers at the Kitchen, working the grill.
Nellie Conover-Crockett, the Community Soup Kitchen’s intern, normally spends her time on tasks like grant writing. But whenever she can, and especially on Tuesday, she makes sure to help out with the handing out and cooking of food. At the farmers’ market, she was in charge of giving interested clients boxes of cereal.
“I think it’s a really great idea,” she said. “For folks for are able to cook … it’s a great deal.”