A new farmers’ market is coming to St. Petersburg, but you won’t have to go far to find it.
At the next Harbor Market on Jan. 27, Sodexo, the on-campus food service, will have a stand set up where fresh local produce will be sold.
Sodexo gets three loads of produce a week. Their main provider is FreshPoint, who is also used at the new Locale Market at Sundial. FreshPoint delivers produce harvested from farms around the state in neighboring cities like Odessa, Plant City and Hawthorne.
The produce being sold, which will include veggies like lettuce, carrots, squash and zucchini, is the same that is used to fill the salad bar at The Reef. The prices for the market have not yet been determined, but they will be competitive with other farmers’ markets in the area.
General manager Louis Duran has been running the Sodexo since it first opened in fall 2012. His goal for the market is to make it educational and hopes it will help build awareness around campus for the quality of food being served at The Reef.
“My idea is to let the students know where their produce is coming from,” Duran told The Crow’s Nest.
According to Duran, an increasing amount of students have been requesting fresh local produce, and he wants them to know it is something the campus already has. In addition to local produce, Sodexo also provides sustainable meats and dairy products from local farms.
But for now, the focus is on getting the word out about the produce. After all, the most popular meal sold at The Reef is the salad bar.
Sodexo posts information about the produce available that month on a flyer next to the salad bar. The flyer includes information on what farm the produce comes from and how far away from campus it is.
The plan for the market is to see how it goes the first time and to go from there.
“This is exploratory,” Duran said. “ I want to make sure there is a general interest.”
The Harbor Market runs bi-weekly on Tuesdays at the Harbor walk. It is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
