The pandemic put the JMU Farmer's Market on a hiatus but the campus staple is back this year

The farmer’s market has returned! After a year’s wait, local artisans are back to sell their merchandise and produce to JMU students. JMU vendor Donna Shipp says “I own a 53-acre farm and I grow the berries and a lot of the produce that’s in the pickles and the salsa.”

Due to COVID-19 lack of business has taken its toll on many of the vendors. An employee at Staff of Life Bread, Alexandra Lyalikov says “Cause of COVID and because she sells mostly at farmer’s market, her sales have been pretty reduced, so I know we’re hoping we’ll have a pretty big audience at JMU.”

The market is appealing to students, because of the option to spend their dining dollars in a convenient, on-campus location. Freshman Avery Goodstine says “I heard about it on the JMU dining Instagram and I go to a lot of farmer’s markets at home so when I saw that they were having one here, I thought it would be really fun to do kinda what I do back at home and get some good food to have in my dorm.”

Vendor Donna hopes students will continue to support small businesses. She says “I certainly hope this sort of introduces to farmer’s markets and they continue to come to the rest of their lives!” Be sure to stop by the market every Wednesday outside of Madison Union.

Reporting for BreezeTV, I’m Gillian Saunders.

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