Students who are currently enrolled at Clovis Community College (CCC), as well as faculty, can pick up fresh produce and fruit for free at the Clovis Community farmers market on Thursday, June 16 from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.
The farmers market is free of charge to students and faculty to help insure the CCC community has access to fresh produce and fruit throughout the year while working and going to school.
Jessica Medina, Student Success Coach at CCC, and organizer for the farmers market said it serves as a way to provide the students and staff with a variety of resources while also ensuring they have fresh food.
The farmers market is part of CCC’s “Basic Needs Initiatives” which encompasses housing, transportation, child care, access to health and mental health resources.
“Basic needs is something that is extremely important to us at Clovis Community College and we want to make sure that our students have access to different resources so that they can have [any of those] barriers removed that might impede their success in their classes on campus,” Medina said.
Through the facilitation of events like the farmers market, Medina said that CCC has been able to help students and faculty apply to CalFresh, connecting them to community resources such as as emergency or low income housing.
Since the initial pilot farmers market launched in Sept. of 2021, Medina said they have gained more attendance each time they hold their farmers market. Growing from an initial crowd of 50-60 attendees to the most recent farmers market bringing in a crowd of approximately 143.
“We’ll see what the summer looks like. Summer is a little bit slower on campus but we also do still have students taking summer classes and faculty and staff on campus so it may decrease a little bit for the next couple of months but we expect that come August when school is back in session it’ll probably be increasing again,” Medina said.
The food given to attendees at the farmers market is provided by the Central California Food Bank.
Medina said they receive different types of produce from the Central California Food Bank that is given to them at no cost so that they are able to distribute the food out on campus to students and faculty.
Some of the food provided includes apple slices, pom wonderful tea, oranges, along with a large variety of items available for students and staff.