By Miles Hilton
This winter, Jamestown residents have had access to something new: once-a-month winter farmers markets, organized by the Jamestown Farmers Market, of the sort residents are used to seeing on 3rd street every Saturday in the spring, summer, and fall. Hosted in the undercroft of Saint Luke’s Episcopal Church, which also serves as the umbrella organization for Jamestown Farmers Market, the monthly winter market hosts food and craft vendors, live music, and prepared food. Like the summer market, visitors can use their SNAP/EBT benefits when they shop.
Nick Weith, Food Access Manager at the Jamestown Farmers Market, says “people have loved” the winter market, adding that farmers and vendors have been happy to have another revenue stream in the winter months. The market offers free pancakes and coffee, and Weith has been excited to see the community gather to eat, chat, and shop, at a time when there are few other fellowship opportunities in the area. “It seems like the community really enjoys it,” Weith says.
Justina Dore, a longtime member of the Jamestown Farmers Market’s Advisory Council, agrees, highlighting the importance of wintertime opportunities to gather. “I love the chance to get together with everyone that I usually see at the market every weekend in the summer time and just keep building community while shopping local,” Dore says.
Conversations about a winter market began around the time Weith joined as Food Access Manager, in early 2024. There were initial questions about funding, but Weith says, “sometimes you have to start doing the work and hope the money comes.” Jamestown Farmers Market began soliciting vendors, laying the groundwork for a winter market before receiving designated grant funding. In November 2024, funding came in the form of a U.S. Department of Agriculture Farmers Market Promotion Program Grant. However, due to an executive order issued January 20th, 2025 which orders federal agencies to review existing grants and “terminate or modify” them based on ambiguous criteria, the Market is unsure if the promised grant will be delivered.
Farmers Market team thinking ahead. With
more time to plan a future winter market, they hope
to solicit vendors earlier in the season, ensuring that
more farmers have more product they can sell in the
winter months. This should allow next year’s winter
farmers market to occur more frequently, with more
farmers and other vendors.
Weith is optimistic about the continued financial health of the Jamestown Farmers Market, saying that the USDA grant is only a portion of the market’s diversified annual income, and “backup budgets” have been made to account for any possible reversal of the grant award. “We’re able to continue doing this work,” says Weith, “all the programs that have existed, our mobile market, our farmers market, Monday Night Cafe, our CSA program, all of those programs are going to continue,” while new programs and marketing, among other costs, may be cut.
The winter market’s success already has the Jamestown Farmers Market team thinking ahead. With more time to plan a future winter market, they hope to solicit vendors earlier in the season, ensuring that more farmers have more product they can sell in the winter months. This should allow next year’s winter farmers market to occur more frequently, with more farmers and other vendors.
For this year’s summer farmers market, Weith hopes to offer more hot food vendors and food trucks, as well as craft vendors selling pottery or other kitchen goods. While the market has a long track record of partnering with other Jamestown events and festivals, such as the Scandinavian Folk Festival and the Lucille Ball Comedy Festival, this year may bring even more. The summer market will also extend its season, beginning the first week of June and ending in a pre-Thanksgiving market, giving community members the chance to fill their Thanksgiving tables with local food. “We’re really diving into a lot of our programming this year to make it a more welcoming experience and improve the availability of products,” says Weith, “and, most importantly, the access to healthy and fresh food.”
There will be two more winter markets this season, on March 22 and April 19, both in the undercroft of Saint Luke’s Episcoal Church in Jamestown. The summer farmers market will resume on 3rd street on June 7, concurrent with the Jamestown Pride Festival.