URI’s Free Farmers’ Market is going strong, offering another season of fresh, free produce giveaways on the URI Quad and at a new, added location this year to serve athletes, commuter students and students on west campus.

All URI students are welcome and encouraged to visit this year’s market; bring a reusable shopping bag or get one on-site.

The market takes place weekly through the end of October on Thursdays 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the Quad, with a new satellite option outside of Mackal-Tootell on Thursday afternoons from 2 to 3 p.m. (while supplies last). On inclement days, the market moves inside Fogarty Hall.

A community effort

Free Farmers’ Market

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URI is one of only a few New England colleges that provide this kind of free, homegrown market, offering food grown less than a mile away at the University’s farms. Farm to table turnaround is less than 24 hours, with farm-fresh produce gathered on Wednesdays and distributed the next day. Last year, those Thursdays shared a large bounty of food: the farm yielded more than 7,000 pounds of produce, shared for free with more than 1,600 URI students.

The market is part of URI community efforts to take excess food grown at the University’s teaching and research farms and share it with URI students. As a land grant university, food production is part of URI’s curriculum in the College of the Environment and Life Sciences and one of its missions.

The market is supported by student volunteers, for-credit and paid student managers, URI Health Promotion, the Nutrition Department and Cooperative Extension. Amanda Missimer and Kelli Kidd co-coordinate the program with Rebecca Brown who oversees the Agronomy Farm. Peckham Farm contributes farm fresh eggs and URI Master Gardeners coordinate the harvest of apples from East Farm.