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Moving around Bella Vista for 18 years, Sara Feinstein finally settled on the 1600 block of South Fourth Street about five years ago. Weekly, she would travel from her Pennsport home to the Headhouse Farmers Market, Second and Lombard Street, to get fresh, local produce.
“I realized most people don’t walk as much as I do or they aren’t going to be able to walk a mile,” Feinstein, 46, said. “I started to talk to the volunteers at Headhouse about how to get a farmers market started and they said, ‘sure, you can do a farmers’ market, but you have to raise $20,000 a year.’”
With that hefty price tag, Feinstein asked her neighbors for other options. At a Friends of Dickinson Square Park board meeting, Feinstein, who began her second stint as a member in 2009, and her fellow organizers discussed fundraising. Feinstein contacted Farm to City, who guided the market’s application process last year.
“We started organizing committees to show we were really behind it,” Feinstein, who also serves as a marketing director Maccabi USA, “We wanted them to understand there is going to be support for the market.”
The organization and persistence paid off in the form of the area’s first farmers market June 5. Since then, she has continued to put programming in place to draw local residents to the market.
“We have a gluten-free chef and consultant coming in,” the Pittsburgh native said of the last market scheduled for Oct. 16. “We do community building in Dickinson Square Park in conjunction with the market, which we use to promote the market’s products and vendors to show what you can do with this produce.”
It launched with three vendors and the organizer hopes to grow to four by next year. While Feinstein continues to push to get more stalls to populate the park Sundays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. during the warmer months, those who have already signed on have become honorary members of the South Philadelphia community.
“They are friendly with each other, and with the people within our community. We might not be the most profitable — it’s a newer market so it’s got to be worth their while,” Feinstein, who has a background in culinary arts and restaurant management, said. “It’s fun for me. I hang out with the farmers and pretend I know what it’s like to have a green thumb.”
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
More 2011 Difference Makers:
Madeline Brinkman Louis DiRenzo Bonney DosSantos Andrew Emma Darren Fava
Greg Frangipani Gary Harkins Kelly Hile Mitch Little Robert Malara
Jessica Mammarella Chris Menna Anton Moore John Murawski Cassie Plummer
Sue Posternock Michelle Rumbaugh Letty Santarelli Christy Santoro
Marianne Squillaciotti Walter Stewart Jennifer Swain Angelica-Victoriano Joe Whelan
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