The Rogers Farmers' Market

Recently, members of the Northwest Arkansas Emerging Leaders (http://www.nwalead.com/) downtown workgroup launched a Rogers Farmers' Market steering committee to support the Rogers Farmers’ Market and its board of directors and manager and to grow awareness and traffic for the market. The ultimate goal is to make the market a sustainable, integral part of downtown Rogers and help the farmers succeed by growing local support.

Efforts are already underway: the Rogers Farmers' Market now has an active presence on Facebook (http://bit.ly/cuXfmg) with a rapidly growing fan base, as well as a presence on Twitter at www.twitter.com/RogersFarmerMkt.  If you use these tools, be sure to connect to both sites and promote the market!  Best of all, you can now receive Farmers' Market updates via email to stay in the loop on the freshest 100% homemade or homegrown offerings at the market!  Sig up here: http://bit.ly/9ZITMy.

The committee is also exploring the viability of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) through the Rogers Farmers' Market.  This is common in metro areas, and allows residents to support local farmers and fund their success.  There is a great overview of CSAs at http://www.localharvest.org/csa/ if you would like to learn more.  Rogers is one of the only communities without a CSA in northwest Arkansas, although Old Soul Organics does provide delivery in Rogers (http://www.oldsoulorganics.com/).

Other activities being explored by the committee to support the Rogers Farmers' Market include assisting the Office of Human Concern (http://www.eohc.org/) with promotion of its Senior Nutrition Program offered in partnership with the USDA, promotion of SNAP (formerly WIC or food stamps) to encourage use of the Farmers' Market for purchasing healthy foods, outreach and promotion of the market to downtown residents and the community at large, recruitment of more unique, non-competing vendors to the market and more.

If supporting the Rogers Farmers' Market through this group (or just your patronage!) is of interest to you, please contact rogersfarmersmarket@gmail.com to get involved!  We meet once or twice a month in season at Iron Horse Coffee Company in downtown Rogers.

See you on Wednesdays and Saturdays between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m. at the downtown Rogers Farmers' Market.  Tip: put the market as a recurring event on your calendar so that you remember to stop by regularly!