After three years of planning with the West Coast Farmers’ Market Association (WCFMA), Stanford now hosts a weekly farmers’ market every Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Tresidder Memorial Union.

According to Joe Lami, marketing and PR coordinator for WCFMA, the market “is primarily for the Stanford community — students, professors, anybody that is on campus is welcome to come. There’s going to be something for everybody.”

The market opened with 15 vendors selling eggs, honey, fresh fruits and vegetables. The market also sells prepared hummus and jam, as well as snacks such as Italian cookies, pretzels, kettle corn and beef jerky. Artists offer purses, jewelry, paintings and handmade cards.

WCFMA runs between 12 and 15 different markets year-round, hand-selecting different farmers and vendors to bring to the Stanford location based on farm proximity and which products are in season.

The Stanford location farmers’ market is “the brainchild” of Jeanette Smith-Laws, director of operations and student unions at Stanford, according to Jerry Lami, executive director of WCFMA.

Jerry started the organization in 2011 with the goal of bringing farmers markets to smaller community settings.

“Farmers’ markets shouldn’t just be based on large populations,” Joe said. “We try to bring them to the smaller communities and bring a healthy lifestyle and that culture wherever we can.”

Claire Smith ’19 suggested lowering prices at the market to appeal to more students.

“If farmers’ markets want to lose their stigma of being a bougie place where rich hipsters go to buy normal things, they should lower their prices,” Smith said. “It was four dollars for kettle corn.”

Julian Watrous ’19 was excited to see so many free samples.

“The market is more of something where I would be walking through Tressider and drop by — I wouldn’t come here with a shopping list,” he said.

In the future, the Stanford location will expand to include more vendors and opportunities for student involvement.

“We definitely see a fit for possible interns to assist vendors … [or] helping us with the sustainability on campus as well,” Joe said. “There [are] a lot of different things we can explore for sure. Right now, we’re just getting our feet wet, and from there we plan to build out some really cool programs.”

 

Contact Tia Schwab at kbschwab ‘at’ stanford.edu.