Spring Break
Market to produce more produce
by Margaret Goldberg
Op-Ed | 9/16/08
Posted online at 10:06 PM EST on 9/15/08
/ Last updated at 2:48 AM EST on 9/15/08
The Brandeis farmers market is a great idea with immense potential, but there is room for improvement. As I walked around campus and saw the flyers advertising the farmers market, I couldn't help thinking that the University had come up with an ingenious event to support sustainability. Yet when I arrived at the market and saw the handful of vendors, I thought, "This is nice, but where's the rest of it?" I decided that it fell short of expectations and assumed it must have been unsuccessful.
I was mistaken on all counts.
Multiple students I spoke to expressed that the market was not quite what they had anticipated, but the success of the event must be put into perspective. The assumption was that, considering the effort put into the project, it should have been more extensive.
It's true. A vast amount of work was put into the farmers market, but much of it was out of the University's hands. The entire event was organized by three junior girls. Samantha Lenard '10, Mariah Rich '10 and Nicole Starman '10 came up with the idea as part of a project for the class "Greening the Campus and Community," which they took last spring. They noticed the lack of fresh produce on campus, as well as the difficulty for many students without cars to get to the Waltham farmers market, and wanted to make these things more accessible to the average Brandeis student.
The concept was simple enough, but the execution proved much more difficult. Vendors were difficult to reach and to persuade to come to Brandeis, especially given the lack of an established market here, and a bad summer for farms further decreased their number. With persistence, however, the three students were able to put together the first farmers market, and in fact, it turned out better than they had anticipated and more successful than students may realize. According to event coordinators, approximately 350 to 400 people showed up, and many vendors sold out of their products.
Yet the farmers market here at Brandeis can still improve, and it will. "Now that we have credit, people have contacted us wanting to come to the next one," Rich said. The number of vendors expected to come to the next market has already increased in the past week due to the publicity following the first one.
I was mistaken on all counts.
Multiple students I spoke to expressed that the market was not quite what they had anticipated, but the success of the event must be put into perspective. The assumption was that, considering the effort put into the project, it should have been more extensive.
It's true. A vast amount of work was put into the farmers market, but much of it was out of the University's hands. The entire event was organized by three junior girls. Samantha Lenard '10, Mariah Rich '10 and Nicole Starman '10 came up with the idea as part of a project for the class "Greening the Campus and Community," which they took last spring. They noticed the lack of fresh produce on campus, as well as the difficulty for many students without cars to get to the Waltham farmers market, and wanted to make these things more accessible to the average Brandeis student.
The concept was simple enough, but the execution proved much more difficult. Vendors were difficult to reach and to persuade to come to Brandeis, especially given the lack of an established market here, and a bad summer for farms further decreased their number. With persistence, however, the three students were able to put together the first farmers market, and in fact, it turned out better than they had anticipated and more successful than students may realize. According to event coordinators, approximately 350 to 400 people showed up, and many vendors sold out of their products.
Yet the farmers market here at Brandeis can still improve, and it will. "Now that we have credit, people have contacted us wanting to come to the next one," Rich said. The number of vendors expected to come to the next market has already increased in the past week due to the publicity following the first one.
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