We’re proud to announce that Greg Tison, General Manager of the Jacksonville Farmers Market was recently recognized as the 2017 National Market Manager of the Year by the National Association of Produce Market Managers (NAPMM). He was honored in March at the Annual NAPMM conference in San Francisco, CA. Greg also serves on the Board of Directors for the NAPMM, and has been General Manager at the Jacksonville Farmers Market for over 7 years. With a total of 25 years of experience in market management, Greg says, “I’ve had a passion for agriculture since I was a child, and my family is and always has been involved in farming in some way.”

The NAPMM was founded in 1947, and works to help market managers improve facilities and increase services while encouraging cooperation and exchange of ideas between members and partners. NAPMM’s mission is to provide resources, leadership development, and networking opportunities for permanent retail, wholesale, and public market professionals to encourage their success and vitality on a local, regional and national level. http://www.napmm.org/

Construction began last week and is expected to be finished in late June. Some of the upgrades include new sidewalks along the sides of each building, and new steel construction awnings to cover those sidewalks.
The new awnings will allow for shopping in any weather at the Farmers Market, and they will also provide shade for our vendors.

You may notice that vendors will have to move to different areas of the market throughout construction, but fortunately, each vendor will be able to remain up and
running during all phases of construction. Also, to help keep your shopping experience quick and easy, there won’t be any changes to the flow of traffic in or around the market.

For an update on produce; watermelons are in season now, and we have plenty of them. We’re at the end of the winter’s crop which means no more citrus or strawberries.
Some more popular items that will be back at the market soon are blueberries, peaches and a variety of peas.

Yesterday we had the pleasure of hosting the City Year Jacksonville AmeriCorps members for a tour of the Jacksonville Farmers Market. They were impressed with our huge variety of fresh fruits, vegetables, seafood and more. They even did some shopping to take advantage of our low prices.

If you aren’t familiar with City Year, it’s a nationwide organization working to bridge the gap in high-poverty communities between the support that students need, and what their schools are designed and resourced to provide. Their work is helping to increase graduation rates across the country, and change the lives of the students they serve.