Wallingford Farmers Market report

By Izzy Marvin

Today, Wednesday June 12, was the second day of my farmers market outreach project! I attended and secured an amazing spot at the Wallingford farmers market. I had never been to this farmers market before and thought it was so charming!

Today was a less busy day in terms of the amount of individuals approaching my station but I had great conversations with the people who did. The farmers market was full of young children, families, and dogs which is different from the University District farmers market that consists of older individuals and college age couples.

Once I arrived and was getting set up, the neighboring booths next to me made it a point to be welcoming. One man from the tent next to me came over and expressed interest in The Monitor and said how it used to be a great news magazine and he’d love to check it out and he took a copy. Another booth across from me approached me and offered me some samples of their products. He gave me guacamole, salsa, a fresh salad dish, chips, and a lemon ginger juice. After I ate it he approached me again and asked how I liked it and also asked what The Monitor was all about and I told him and he seemed very interested in the style of news that I was presenting so he took a copy then refilled my drink!

Another great experience I had today was a family that approached me. There was a little boy who ran up to me and was saying hi and his mother and sister came up as well. The mother was asking me what I was giving out and I explained it to her. As she was looking at the monitor options I had laid out she chose to take a monitor with the title “Raising Boys To Be Caring and Strong”. She chose this copy because she had a young boy and was interested in how to continue to raise her boy to be respectful and was interested in what others were doing to raise their children.

One last great experience was this kind lady named Melissa. She asked if she could move by me into the sun and I said yes. She asked if I was in high school or middle school and I told her I just graduated from college! We had a great conversation about what she did, which was drawing and painting lifelike homes and I explained what The Monitor was. She took a copy and started reading right away!

Overall this was a great day. I am so excited to attend this market again in upcoming weeks.