Come Thru Market is an incubator market centering Black and Indigenous Farmers and Makers. We support BIPOC growers in taking their small business dreams to the farmers market environment. The Come Thru Market Farmer Training Program supports beginning farmers of color in Portland in building their farmers market readiness and success. This incubator program is specifically designed for people of color, including immigrants and refugees. In their own words:
“This is a market for Black and Brown people.
For folks of color, this harkens to many things – no one is following you around because you must steal things; at the market, people won’t talk to you like you are stupid and you’ve never met a vegetable, at the same time, there are food demos because you may not have seen this vegetable.
It means validating the experience you arrive with, what you do and don’t know. And creating an opportunity to reflect on what it means to have heritage and reconnect.
For our vendors, we are creating a space where they can state their worth. People of Color in this country do not ever get the opportunity to set and state their own value without having that eroded by white supremacy.
It’s about fairness and being conscious.
For four hours once every two weeks, Black and Brown people get to go into space and say, “My worth is $5 for four beets and I won’t be moved.”
For white Portlanders, you should come through because you will leave a better person. I’m not inviting you to come consume Black and Indigenous culture. It should edify you to be in a place that doesn’t center you.
Everyone is indigenous somewhere. When you get to come to a marketplace like Come Thru, you are edified. It is an invitation to find your own heritage and your own roots. “
Share what’s great about this farmers market: