The Rochester Farmers Market was founded and is operated by Alicia Frye, Jeanne Grover, and Jennifer Marsh. It is their goal to support local family farmers and artisans by giving them a viable outlet to sell directly to the consumer and to enrich the community by creating a safe, clean and fun venue to purchase organic, fresh, nutritious local foods.
The Market opened for its first season in 2016. The combination of hard work, great vendors, awesome volunteers, and talented musicians paid off and the fruits of their labor were soon realized. Food demos, horse-drawn wagon rides, interactive story-telling for children, and the fact that the market is held on a Rochester treasure, known as the Rochester Common, certainly added to the success of the market.
Offering SNAP/EBT, through Seacoast Eat Local, allowed the market to reach out to families in need of assistance. In the seventeen weeks the market was open in 2016, the SNAP/EBT program was utilized over 500 times. Recipients of SNAP were so very grateful for the program and the market match dollars. (See website for info)
The month of September is dedicated to veterans living in Strafford County. A WW11 helmet sitting in Benedicts Grill collects donations for distribution at the market. The market handed out eleven thousand twenty dollars in food vouchers to our local heroes at our 2016 September markets. This highly successful program will be repeated this September. We have currently collected $32,000 for 2017. (See website for info)
The Rochester Farmers Market is staffed with volunteers.
No one is being paid for their service, including the market managers
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