Fresh on campus

8/23/2018

Ohio Farmers Market to continue to expose students to local food scene on campus

Alexis Eichelberger / For The Post

The Athens Farmers Market on East State Street is one of the largest markets of its kind in the state. It includes dozens of vendors selling fresh fruit and vegetables, baked goods, handmade crafts and more.

But there is another, smaller market that sprouted on Ohio University’s campus eight years ago, designed specifically to expose students to Athens’ vibrant local food scene and encourage them to support the farmers living and working close by.

This fall, the Ohio Farmers Market will take place each Friday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Howard Park on East Union Street beginning Aug. 31 and running through Oct. 26.

Rachael Ridout, a senior studying sociology and German, is in charge of the market this year through her position in the Community Engagement Office of the Campus Involvement Center. She learned and observed a bit about the market last year, but this year she will take the lead on every aspect of its planning, from vending to promotion.

Photo provided by Rachael Ridout

The market can accommodate up to 15 vendors, and Ridout said she hopes to grow its usual attendance of approximately 10 vendors to reach that maximum. She also hopes to bring live musicians and artists to the market to provide entertainment for a portion of the afternoon.

“We’re able to bring it to students who either don’t know about the market on State Street … or those who are unable to get out there on Saturdays,” Ridout said. “We also do want to connect students with the community as well, being able to meet farmers here on campus who are growing their food.”

The Farmacy, a natural food store located on Stimson Avenue, began vending at the Ohio Farmers Market last fall. Although the store does not sell at the larger Athens Farmers Market, owner Kevin Kidd sees the Ohio market as a marketing opportunity for the store that will hopefully attract students to it by providing free samples.

Kidd said the lack of electricity available on site at the market makes it difficult to prepare food there. But this fall, he plans on trying to use a solar generator to make smoothies to sell at the market, which are a best-seller at the Farmacy’s grab-and-go deli.

“We’re a natural food store, but we go way beyond that,” Kidd said. “I look at (the market) as more of advertising. Every week we try to shake it up a little bit.”

Barbara Harrison, assistant director of community engagement programs for the Campus Involvement Center, has overseen the market and its planning since it was taken over by the Community Engagement Office in 2012. Before then, the market was an initiative of Graduate Student Senate.

“We felt it was worthwhile to try to bring fresh local foods to students and kind of get them acclimated, and hopefully they’ll seek out the larger market,” Harrison said.

Harrison said the number of vendors who attend the market has ebbed and flowed over its years of operation, and this year she hopes to see more vendors selling prepared foods such as slices of pizza or sandwiches that students can easily purchase and eat without worrying about how to prepare it themselves.

It is possible, Harrison said, for students to never really be exposed to the local food movement in Athens and be unaware of it if they are not first exposed to it on campus. The Ohio Farmers Market is a good medium through which to introduce students to Athens’ local food scene.

“We aren’t connected to the large market on East State, but we do really promote it because our goal as an office is to help students get connected to the community,” Harrison said. “And while they get connected, they also learn skills. They gain ideas about how maybe they want to be a leader in their community someday.”

Development by: Megan Knapp / Digital Production Editor