In just one week, the Hattiesburg Farmers Market will celebrate the opening of the 2022 season with live entertainment and dozens of farm and artisan vendors. Celebrations begin at 3:00 p.m. on March 24 at Town Square Park in downtown Hattiesburg.
“The market shutdown furing COVID because everyone was scared,” said Andrea Saffle, executive director of the Downtown Hattiesburg Association. “It reopened last year, but it wasn’t anything like it used to be. This year we’re building it back up with live music, food trucks and activities like yoga in the park, workshops on topics like gardening and cooking, art projects and much more. . . . This year is all about rebuilding bigger and better.”
As in previous years, the 2022 market season will run from March to November with the market open from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. every Thursday.
Kelsey Medley, president of the Hattiesburg Farmers Market Board of Directors, said that this year she is focused on finding as many high quality vendors as possible.
“A lot of markets don’t allow competitor vendors to come to their markets,” she said. “This year we’re saying anybody and everybody that wants to be a vendor should fill out an application, pay the vendor fee and come on out. The bigger the better.”
Medley herself is a vendor for her company MississippTea, the only regional provider of Yaupon Tea. She said that the low vendor fee of $10 allowed her to join when she was just starting out, and that the market board has kept the fee low to allow both small and large farmers the chance to easily offer their goods to the public.
With no grocery store currently in downtown Hattiesburg, Medley and Saffle believe that it is imperative to keep recruiting and encouraging more farmers to provide healthy food options to the area.
“Having a place where you can get fresh, locally sourced, locally grown produce on a regular basis, I think it’s really important,” Saffle said.
She added that the farmers market participates in programs like Mississippi Farmers Nutrition Program (MFNP) through WIC, which provides WIC recipients with vouchers for fresh produce. To learn more about MFNP, visit https://bit.ly/3sNEYlh.
Medley encouraged everyone to come out even if they’ve never been before.
“It truly is a sense of community,” she said. “People know the faces of who they’re buying from, and you can come to the market and get truly everything you need from produce to meat and milk. . . . It’s like shopping at a street festival. Come early and have fun.”
To learn more about the Hattiesburg Farmers Market or to apply to be a vendor, visit www.hattiesburgfarmersmarket.com.
