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In honor of National Farmer's Market Week, we're spotlighting our farmer's markets and one of the Project GROWS staff members who works behind the scenes to bring them to you: Megan Townley! Megan is our food access coordinator and she manages, promotes, and oversees our markets. Megan studied Public Health at Oregon State University and was a nutrition educator for children in her community. While at OSU she discovered her passion for the environment, nutrition, and the food system. After moving to Virginia, she worked as a nutritionist assistant for WIC, where her passion for food access grew stronger, and in January, she found Project GROWS! Besides managing our markets, Megan also helps facilitate field trips for students and Farm-to-School tastings at local schools.
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Staunton-Augusta Health Department Farmer's Market
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Located in the parking lot of the Health Department in Staunton, this market is open every Friday from 11am-2pm from July through September. As part of our mission to improve food access in our community, Project GROWS partners with the WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) Farmer's Market Nutrition Program to sell our produce here. This program provides vouchers to qualifying WIC clients that can be used on fresh fruits, veggies, and cut herbs, and this market is a great place to find those things! According to the USDA FMNP website's latest available data, 1.7 million WIC participants received these vouchers nationwide in 2015 to buy a variety of locally grown produce and herbs at authorized farmer's markets (FNS.USDA.org). We're thrilled to be participating in this program that benefits many women and children in our community.
This market is also open to the general public and accepts cash and regular checks. Stop by and see us on Fridays!
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North Augusta Farmer's Market
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Located at the Augusta County Government Center market dock in Verona, the NAFM is open every Wednesday from 12pm-5pm from April through October. Project GROWS manages this market, which houses over seven vendors including Roller's Bakery, Grazelen Farms, North Mountain Produce, Ulmer's Mountain View Farm, Kegley's, Randall Shank, and Singing Earth Farm, and we often have live music from Jerry Kelly! Come see us on Wednesdays to buy your vegetables, meat, honey, and baked goods for the week! We also partner with Augusta County Parks and Rec to bring food trucks to the market each week. Part of the proceeds from the market go to Project GROWS to support our SNAP Double Dollars program as well as our general programming. Click here to follow this market on Facebook!
Project GROWS facilitates the SNAP Double Dollars Program at both this market and the Waynesboro Farmer's Market. We accept and double SNAP-EBT benefits (formerly known as food stamps) up to $25! More than 74% of SNAP participants include families with children. This program allows parents and individuals to purchase more healthy fresh foods from local farmers.
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Waynesboro Farmer's Market
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Project GROWS also manages the Waynesboro Farmer's Market, which runs from May until the end of September, every Saturday from 9am-1pm, at the Pavilion at Constitution Park in Waynesboro! Vendors include Whites Spring Valley Farm, Grazelen Farms, Marshall Southwick, The White Barn Company, Artsy Craftsy, and Campbell Kitchen Creations, and this market also often has live music from Jerry Kelly! We also gladly accept and double SNAP-EBT benefits up to $25 at this market. Click here to follow this market on Facebook, or click below to sign up for the WFM monthly newsletter!
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Questions about our markets? Wondering how to apply to become a vendor? Email Megan at megan@projectgrows.org! We are grateful for your support of our mission to cultivate health in Staunton, Waynesboro, and Augusta County.
Locally Yours,
The Project GROWS Team
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