Despite cold weather on Saturday, Ani Belsare and his two children stopped by the children’s table. His daughter carefully mashed plant fiber into a circle and laid her paper out to dry in the sun. Belsare said that he comes to the Farmers Market every two or three weeks and usually visits the table. He said his daughter usually enjoys the activities, but he’d like to see some more variety.
“When they get the money, I would like to see a few more activities, like papermaking, that are unusual or interesting,” Belsare said.
The Columbia Farmers Market will receive $12,933 as part of a grant Missouri was given by the USDA to support various specialty crop projects across the state.
The Missouri Department of Agriculture announces funding and then participants throughout Missouri are encouraged to apply for funding. Applicants are then reviewed by a panel in the MDA, MDA spokeswoman Sarah Alsager said.
The larger grant, worth $450,000, is part of the Farm Bill to support crops like fruits, vegetables, nuts and honey.
Corrina Smith, Columbia Farmers Market manager, said the grant will be used to expand the children’s table, the educational portion of the market. Each week community organizations, like Wild Wonder, Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture or the Stephens College Children’s School, volunteer at the table and provide activities or skill demonstrations for kids.
“We want to provide something educational about food, sustainability, agriculture and about the farmers market,” Smith said.
She said she plans to use the grant money to the make children’s program self-sustaining for a year and buy tents, tables and cooking supplies. She said she would like to create activity booklets to give to each child, who would be given tokens to spend at the market at the end of the month after completing the booklet.
“We’re hoping by getting these kids excited about eating fresh produce that we’ll hopefully increase the market’s sales and raise healthy eaters,” Smith said.
The children’s table is only one piece of the Columbia Farmers Market’s mission to educate children. Several community organizations also take groups of children to working farms to learn more about agriculture.
Kenny Duzan, a vendor at the market, said he has had children from Grant Elementary School come and help him pick lettuce. The children picked, washed and prepared lettuce heads and then learned how to make dressing for their salad.
“It was amazing to see how much the kids enjoyed it,” Duzan said. “It was great to see how much they ate and how actually interested they were.”
The process for expanding children’s table activities has only just begun. Smith said that the Columbia Farmers Market had only just been notified of the donation, and the new children’s programs will not begin until April 2015.
