Did you know there are now 14 farmers’ markets in Wake County who draw an increasing number of vendors and customers every week. The popularity of these markets shows the growing demand for local fresh food among county residents.
Many of you may have noticed the booth at the July 31 Wake Forest Farmers’ Market manned by Kathleen Hebert, an intern with the Wake County Cooperative Extension office. She was asking shoppers to indicate how often they shop there and estimate how much they usually spend.
The Cooperative Extension office is a federally funded educational system promoting agricultural awareness and community involvement, and currently the office wants to find ways to support the markets in the future, calling them an “amazing county resource.”
Four groups are being examined: customers currently attending markets, consumers not regularly attending markets, participating vendors, and market managers.
The results of this study will available before the end of the year. If you or your organization have any questions about the markets or would like to help Cooperative Extension’s efforts, please contact Kathleen Hébert at kahebert@ncsu.edu. And if you are a Wake County resident, please take the ‘citizen’ survey about general market use currently posted on www.WakeGOV.com. Just look for the tomato icon!