In Hardin County, what started as a conversation between the Family and Consumer Sciences agent and the Farmers’ Market board president became a population kids activity that saw over 600 children over the course of the first summer. The "Power of Produce (POP) Club" was an interactive taste kitchen and activity center aimed to bring more youth and their parents to the market. With help from the UK School of Human Environmental sciences FCS mini-grant, POP Club was born. 

Our goal has been three-fold since it's inception:

 -increase attendance at the farmers’ market
 -encourage youth to try new (local) produce
 -include a financial literacy piece

Children can choose to visit one or both stations, earning $2 at each one. The child has to try the food to earn the money at the taste kitchen. They have to be old enough to complete the activity themselves at the activity center, but we always offer activities geared towards our elementary age students. At each station, participants are given a token, which they then take to the bank to get their market money. At the bank, they are told about having the option to spend their money now, or save it, come back and earn more to be able to buy something larger. 

POP Club began in 2017 and has continued to happen each year since, excluding the 2020 pandemic year. POP Club is offered 5-8 times over the course of the summer and is open to any youth under 18. There are three components: a taste kitchen which would allow and encourage youth to try new produce available that day at the market, an activity center that was aimed at teaching youth how their food is grown and harvested, and a financial management piece which would encourage children to save, spend and earn market money by participating in activities. For each activity or new produce a child tasted, they earn $2. This means at each POP Club Day, a child can earn $4.00 to spend with the vendors. They are then encouraged to either spend or save up their money to be able to buy something larger. 

POP Club is fully funded by multiple community partners who reach out to US each year to ask if they can continue to sponsor POP Club. We have new sponsors each year, but a majority are the same. Two community partners have been with us since the first summer and continue to sponsor us each year. This year, five different sponsors supported POP Club. One sponsor was new this year, and stemmed from a mother who brought her own children to POP Club and asked if her business could be a future sponsor. 

For the summer of 2024, we had 1081 contacts with a total of 587 youth. We gave out $2,163.00 to youth who spent that money with local vendors. It is estimated that for every dollar spent at a local farmers market, twice as much revenue is generated in the local economy compared to that generated by wholesale businesses. One study found that 79% of farmers market vendors buy their other supplies locally, meaning the majority of the money spent with them is staying within our own economy. 

More than 35% of those youth were new to POP Club, with a majority of the youth returning from the previous summers.

Yet again, in addition to the money spent by the children, market vendors reported an overall 15% increase in sales from adult customers over days that POP Club is not in sessions. This means that not only were the children purchasing from the vendors, but their parents were as well. 100% of market vendors reported an increase in sales because of POP Club. 

Over 70% of parents reported that their children were not only trying new foods at the Taste Kitchen, but were requesting new foods at home. 

Two parents have given elaborate quotes on how much they enjoy bringing their children to POP Club, but many many others make comments frequently on how excited they and their children are for POP Club each year:

"My kids and I love Pop Club! This was my first summer as a Stay at Home mom, and going to the Farmer's Market was our Wednesday ritual! Every Wednesday they got up excited to go. They were so excited because of Pop Club! They got to learn about fruits and vegetables, were challenged to taste new things, and learned about spending money! The Farmer's Market has become one of their favorite places to visit even when Pop Club is not in session because of all they've learned. They love to talk to the farmers at their booths, and bring something different home with each visit!"

-A.S. Mother of 3

"When I first read about Pop Club, I thought it would be a good summertime activity to do with my kids to get them out of the house and into the sunshine during the week. I didn't realize it would be so much more than that. Each week, my kids have had the opportunity to taste a new fruit or vegetable. Now, this isn't a monumental feat for my oldest. She eats anything and everything and considers zucchini to be one of her favorite foods. My youngest though? He'd survive on chicken nuggets and french fries if he thought he could get by with it. I've tried sneaking vegetables and fruits, dicing them up to make them look like other foods, bribing (listen, I'm not perfect. I just want the kid to eat something green!), all to no avail. I had resigned myself to the idea that he was just going to be a difficult eater for life. My kids walked up to the Tasting Station at their first Pop Club, and I watched in disbelief as my youngest child WILLINGLY put a blueberry into his mouth.....AND LOVED IT. He bought a basket of blueberries with his Pop Bucks that very day. Since then, I have listened to him request blueberries for dinner, and blueberry bread (also a Farmers' Market Pop Bucks purchase) for breakfast. Pop Club has enabled my child to introduce new foods into his diet that I have had zero success with before. I guess when mom isn't the one suggesting it, that makes it okay to try? 

Not only that, my oldest has been able to introduce tomatoes back into her diet--something that we took away after discovering that she was experiencing acid reflux in response to eating. One day at Pop Club, a Farmers' Market vendor suggested that we try yellow tomatoes to cut down on acid. I wouldn't have known that this was an option, and now we have a bucket full of yellow tomatoes, waiting to be packed in my daughter's lunch box for school. She's thrilled that her favorite food is back on her plate and I'm thrilled that a little activity at the Market let me to be educated further on foods my daughter can eat.

Pop Club has gone beyond my expectations. It's such a joy to stand back and watch kids experiencing new foods and learning about where their food comes from, in an age when so many think milk comes straight from the grocery and not from the cow. I cannot praise the Hardin County Cooperative Extension Service, Hardin County Farmers' Market, Magnolia Bank, and Farm Credit Mid America for partnering together to make this revolutionary activity available for our local kids."

-D.G. Mother of 2

The parent of this child who tried blueberries for the first time at POP Club reported that he still eats blueberries, almost daily. And his first introduction to them was 7 years ago at POP Club. He has also since tried numerous fruits and vegetables because of POP Club, or because "he says 'well I didn't know I liked blueberries until POP Club made me try them, so I will try this and maybe like it too.'" 

All three goals have been met every summer. The financial literacy piece was included every time as bank employees spoke with children each time about earning and saving money. Children had to be the ones spending the money, not the parents. 

There are plans for POP Club to continue each summer and to involve community partners each time