Art at the Market

Increasing the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables by Laurel County youth is the main goal of the Art at the Market program. The program had 3 regular monthly sessions from May to July held during the Saturday Farmers Market. The program targeted youth 4-12. The children signed up to participate in a specially taught painting project which they were encouraged to enter into the Laurel County Fair. The children were given a sample of a U.K. SNAP recipe and given SNAP recipe cards for produce that was available that week at the market. Sixty seven children participated in the regular program with reactions to the recipe samples varying as expected from disgusting to delicious but everyone tried something new. The market vendors said they did see the purchase of vegetables related to the sample recipes increase on those days. Vendors also said that the number of children at the market on art days increased drastically.

A special session was requested by the City of London in July. The city had purchased 100 specially designed rain barrels a few years prior and tried to sell them to businesses and homeowners for storm water management. The city still had several of them in storage and wanted to install them on the farmer’s market facility. The market president and I sanded and primed the barrels. The talented painting instructor turned the barrels into basically coloring sheets that represented different aspects of London and Laurel County. Thirty children and several adult farmers’ market volunteers spent 3 hours painting the barrels. The farmer’s market committee decided that since the children could not physically take home the art project that they had created that they would fund vouchers for the children to spend at the market when they finished. Each child received a $5 voucher that they could spend at the market.