The Farm Produce Market BUILDING COMMUNITY THROUGH FRESH FOOD by Kelly Oden Photos by Ty and Cat Photography Creating a business model centered on community and fresh produce came naturally to the owners of The Farm Produce Market on Mobile Highway. In 2012, Sandy Veilleux, a former pastry chef and local good food advocate, teamed up with former produce company owners Barbara and Barrie Williams to take over the beloved west side market. Originally established in 1987 by the D’amico family, the trio came together to carry on the tradition after the D’amico family retired. They set out to create a space that not only supported local farmers and cottage food industries, but also served as a gathering space for the neighborhood—a place to socialize, learn about healthy food and maybe even meet a farmer or two.
“I remember putting the keys in the door with Barbara and Barrie. I was just blown away and they completely lit up,’ Veilleux recalled. “I feel like, after that, it’s a blur. Now, all of a sudden it’s been 10 years. We’ve sold retail out of here. We’ve had more than 200 chefs
buy wholesale out of here. We’ve helped open restaurants. We’ve worked with local farmers. I just know that we keep building on the idea of being in this crazy building and honoring a family relationship with produce, whether it’s with our farmers or with our community.” Since 2012, the Farm has expanded rapidly. Perhaps a little too rapidly. Last year, The Farm handed over its wholesale operations to their friends at City Produce. “We just got too big, too fast,” Veilleux said. “We had a waiting list of chefs. I wasn’t popular going out to dinner, let me tell you. So we scaled back and it’s our first full year just being the farmers market.” One of the reasons for the scaling back was the desire to become more involved at the community level. Along with Manna Food Pantries,
The Farm is working with The American Heart Association on their Produce RX project. Produce RX boxes are filled with heart-healthy produce and recipes that are distributed to chronically ill and food insecure community members. “To be on the ground floor of this is incredible,” Veilleux said. “We started with 50 boxes, which was pretty cool. And then overnight, we moved up to 100 boxes. We completely reconfigured everything in here. We do it on Tuesdays, which is normally our setup day. So we just created an assembly line. It’s a fabulous adventure. It really is. We’ve created a little Ziploc bag where we put recipe cards and stickers or anything else someone wants to donate to us. It’s definitely a little pouch of love. We’re hoping to get more community involvement in that. I’m trying to talk to my coffee people to get some coffee in there. We were so lucky to
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