While the city of Mount Vernon supports many types of businesses, agriculture is hardly one of them. So, in the end of July, city and state officials made it possible for farmers to come to them.
Now four weeks after the Mount Vernon Fresh Connect Farmers”™ Market made its debut, city officials say there has been a great response thus far from vendors and consumers alike.
“This is a great thing for the city of Mount Vernon,” said Mayor Clinton I. Young Jr. “It gives the citizens of Mount Vernon, particularly its senior citizens, fresh fruits and vegetables at an extremely reasonable cost.”
Young said he has seen more people each week at the farmers”™ market, which comes to town every Thursday in City Hall Plaza. “They”™re having a grand time.”
The farmers”™ market is one of 18 statewide that have been incorporated into Gov. Andrew Cuomo”™s New York Fresh Connect Farmers”™ Market initiative, which is aimed at bringing locally grown produce into underserved communities and at creating jobs by having locals help to organize and staff the new markets.
“Farmers”™ markets increase farm sales and revenue by bringing farm produce directly to the consumer,” Cuomo said in a recent release. “These markets also help underserved communities by providing fresh produce, nutritional education and local jobs.”
Other Fresh Connect markets are in Poughkeepsie, the Bronx and Newburgh. Those are in addition to already established markets in at least 19 other Westchester towns and cities.
The Fresh Connect markets have been made possible by a grant of up to $15,000 per market from the state.
Steve Lawrence, grants administrator for the city of Mount Vernon and one of the individuals closely involved in bringing the farmers”™ market to the city, said the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
“Vendors are saying the traffic that this market has generated in three weeks rivals what they”™ve seen after two months of operating in other settings,” he said. He said eight vendors were expected at last Thursday”™s market.
While the impact of one new farmers”™ market might be considered minimal when it comes to boosting job growth as the governor has planned, several of the vendors at the Mount Vernon market said they had a presence at dozens of different markets around the New York metropolitan region.
Kui He, a Brooklyn native who was running the Geneva-based Red Jacket Orchards”™ stand, said the company is present at more than 70 locations and the attendance is steadily improving. “They get better every single year.”
