Mission

The Harrisonburg Farmers Market mission is to provide the public with easy access to fresh, nutritious, locally produced agricultural goods and crafts of the highest quality, to assist local and regional farmers and other producers to directly market their products to the local customer base, and to support environmental stewardship and community well-being.

Services

Provide agricultural goods and crafts to consumers

Who we primarily serve

Community residents, however anyone is welcome to shop

Activities

We host adoption events in the community, fundraisers such as the kitten shower and Chick Fil A spirit night, outreach programs, volunteer organizations, and foster orientations.

Teen Opportunities

Fostering

- Fostering for the RHSPCA means temporarily opening your home to an animal (or animals) in need of extra time and attention. Foster homes are mostly used as a quiet place for pets to recover from illness or injury, or to simply grow big enough to be placed up for adoption.

Volunteering.

- Requires one hours in person orientation. Volunteers can be there in order to gain experience working with animals, in order to work with animals more, through a club at the local university, or even for court ordered community service hours.

Unique Information

We provide assistance with SNAP. SNAP is a federal program that replaced the Food Stamp Program. SNAP stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. SNAP dollars can only buy food or food producing plants.

With the Harrisonburg Farmers Market’s Double Value Incentive Program, SNAP participants are able to maximize the value of their SNAP benefits and buy up to $20.00 more in fresh healthy produce per week to better feed their families.

Market History:

The first real roots of the current Market began in the 1950’s with Clarence Dellinger, a local organic producer, who began selling produce in the parking lot of the Harrisonburg Police Station. He later joined the organized market.

The Downtown Harrisonburg Farmers Market that we enjoy today was started in 1979 by Samuel Johnson, a fruit and vegetable grower, with the help of community leaders and the Downtown Harrisonburg Retail Merchants. The Market incorporated in 1994 as a Producer Only Market and has been a source for fresh locally grown and produced foods and crafts for the Community for over 30 years. Operating in the lower level of the Liberty Street Parking Deck until 2006 it continued to grow and evolve. In mid summer of 2006 the Market moved to the Municipal Lot on South Liberty Street. A permanent home for the Market in the form of the beautiful Turner Pavilion was completed in 2008 and the Summer Market has become the place to be in Downtown Harrisonburg on Saturday mornings. As the awareness of the importance and benefits of eating locally and supporting local sustainable agriculture continues to grow the Harrisonburg Farmers Market looks forward to being an even more vital part of the growing Community it serves.