Duluth Hillside Farmers Market is now open

Great news for the Duluth Hillside community as the annual Hillside Farmers market returned to the area on June 13th 2023.

The market is put together by Community Action Duluth’s Seeds of Success program with support from Essentia Health. It was first launched in May of 2018 to put healthy food options on a bus line and within walking distance of many Hillside neighbors.

With help from Hunger Solutions Minnesota, SNAP customers can match their benefits, receiving $40 to spend at the market when they swipe an EBT card for $15. Through funding from Whole Foods Co-op, children under 18 or people over 60 are eligible to receive free $4 tokens to spend on produce through the Power of Produce (PoP) Club.

Affinity Plus Credit Union, is providing the market with live music and other entertainment all summer long. The opening day featured Steve Solkela’s “Over-populated” One Man Band, a market favorite.

The opening day included free samples from Essentia’s nutrition services team, a scavenger hunt for kids of all ages, and sign-ups for Power of Produce. Local vendors sold fresh produce, seedling transplants, baked goods, canned goods, flowers, art, and more.

We spoke to Kayla Pridmorie, the Program Manger on the importance of the market for the area.

“This is my neighborhood and it’s so nice to see my neighbors out here, seeing people coming down here to see us and buy stuff. I think it’s so nice to have a positive, family friendly event happening here. Also, as an organization this is the highlight of our year, getting to run this market and bringing this to help our community.”

Seeds of Success, a program of Community Action Duluth is a food justice program that also operates the successful Lincoln Park Farmers Market and the rapidly growing Community Mobile Market, Duluth’s first mobile grocery store.

The market is open every Tuesday until September between 2:00 PM and 5:00 P.M.