Grace Episcopal Church will host the first Brainerd Farmers Market on Saturday, June 5, as an offshoot of its Food and Faith program.
“We’d like to be part of the movement that changes people’s relationship with food,” said parishioner and organizer Kathleen Russell. “Food in America has become so dysfunctional. We think it’s an important spiritual issue. We see the whole food-agriculture system in this country as connected to the health of the Earth, to our bodies’ well-being.”
Grace Episcopal Church parishioner Kathleen Russell shows off the church’s newly repaved parking lot, ready for the Brainerd Farmers Market beginning June 5.Russell said the Brainerd Road location will be a more local option for residents of Brainerd who may already frequent the Sunday Chattanooga Market, its Thursday edition at Miller Plaza, or the Wednesday Main Street Market.
“We see this as something that will fill a need,” Russell said.
Russell said the response from farmers was overwhelming when the church began researching the Brainerd market idea.
“What I was told is that they do not have enough outlet for their produce,” she said.
Though Greenlife Grocery, Earth Fare and now Walmart buy from local farmers, local markets help farmers infiltrate a community in a way that no other venue can, she said.
“What’s amazing to me is how many young people want to be farmers,” Russell said. “There’s something that draws people to work the Earth. They all look very tan and calloused hands and that kind of thing. I love the idea that what we can do can help them.”
Grace has also been revamping its gardens and now has space and a vision for a future community garden, complete with cooking classes in the church kitchen.