YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – A collaboration among community organizations is bringing fresh produce to downtown.
Thrive Mahoning Valley’s Downtown Youngstown Farmers Market kicked off Thursday with a ceremonial ribbon cutting led by representatives of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber. The event was at the main branch of the Public Library of Youngstown & Mahoning County.
“The Healthy Community Partnership, which is an initiative of the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley, started talking about this a year ago,” said Vicki Vicars, Thrive Mahoning Valley operations director and lead organizer of the market.
The idea fit with Thrive’s mission of building welcoming, equitable and inclusive communities, she said.
“And because almost all of Youngstown is a food desert, that’s an equity issue,” Vicars said.
Thrive agreed to work with HCP to bring the market downtown to create food access and build a healthier community.
Cindy Beach, public services manager at the library and a member of the HCP team, said access is important to the library too.
“We can see the need here through our work with the mobile market and our own Culinary Literacy Center,” she said. “You can see that that’s a need in downtown.”
Robin Perry, Healthy Community Partnership network coordinator, said people deserve to have a place to go to get fresh produce.
“The library is great. It’s got a bus stop with a bike rack out front. It’s got a nice big parking lot,” she said. “It’s been a great location for other things like the mobile market. We’re really hoping this will continue to be a good location.”
For its debut, the market drew vendors with squash, spinach, scallions, hydroponic greens and desserts, spices and jams.
Jason Roller, owner of Chef’s House LLC, brought his selection of gourmet bread pudding with peach, brownie and dark chocolate varieties. He’s worked for food service companies for years and is starting his own business.
He’s familiar with the work of Thrive and wanted to be part of the market.
Chris Frankovic brought some of the produce, jams and spice blends from Haystack Farms, his Columbiana business. His mother, Mary, was there to help.
“We have all of our own farm-grown vegetables, our seasonings, our jams and preserves,” he said.
All of the produce is grown at the farm. He makes the jams and seasonings and also grows 99% of the contents of those items.
“Our most popular jam would be our wine jams right now,” Frankovic said. “It’s a tie between the blueberry bourbon and the blackberry thyme.”
The market will run from 4-7:30 p.m. the second and fourth Thursday of each month at the main branch of the library on Wick Avenue. It’s in the event space on the first floor and will move to the parking lot beginning in April.
Pictured at top: Cindy Beach, Vicki Vicars and Robin Perry.