ROBERT PIERCE

   • Leader & Times

Saturdays in the summer in Southwest Kansas find many people outdoors enjoying warmer weather and fun activities.

For more than a decade in Liberal, summertime Saturday mornings have found shoppers of all ages, and some of the four-legged kind, taking advantage of the Farmers Market.

This year’s market starts Saturday, May 2, at The Plaza in north Liberal, and Manager Debra Huddleston said this year’s market will feature some old and new vendors, as well some fun, including a scavenger hunt and kids day.

Looking to save some money on purchases? K-State’s Double Up Food Bucks program will be available for those shopping the market. Huddleston explained how to take advantage of the program.

“You bring your EBT card to me,” she said. “I enter it in my phone. You can get up to $25 a day. I give you SNAP tokens for $1 each you can spend at the farmers market. I also give you an equal amount in Double Up Food Bucks tokens.”

Huddleston said these tokens can only be spent on fresh fruit and vegetables, but shoppers can get more bang for their buck.

“If you get $20, you get $40 worth of buying power,” she said.

Initially, Huddleston said she was unsure if Double Up Food Bucks were going to be a part of this year’s Farmers Market, but she believes the program will now be a part of the event for at least the next three years.

One thing Huddleston is trying to get going with the Farmers Market is the Kansas Senior Nutrition program.

“It involves having vendors who grow produce who are willing to take a little training,” she said. “I think it’s just a few hours over Zoom. They would start out very small. Seward County has not been eligible for that before. They need an organization that can administer it andprovide the staff and to get the benefits out and administer the program, which we can do.”

Huddleston said there is a grant in place to help with signing up for Medicaid and applications for the Low Income Energy Assistance Program. In the past, Marketplace insurance was done too.

“They can easily add that to their list of things,” she said. “We’d start out small and only do five seniors this year. I think it’s a $50 benefit. We just need to make some changes to it, and we’ll get that done,” she said. “They didn’t tell me when they came, so I couldn’t tell them what to do and what not to do. I gave them a list of the vendors who had to be on there. They left three of them off.”

As for four-legged friends, Huddleston said dogs are certainly welcome at the Farmers Market.

“We’ll take a picture and make them famous on our Facebook page,” she said.

May 2 also finds many other events happening in Liberal, including the Spring Market and Butterfly Encounter at Baker Arts Center and Grace Place Pregnancy Care Center’s Run Baby Run event, and Huddleston said having the Farmers Market kick off that weekend makes the fun even funner.

“It’s going to be good,” she said. “We’re going to have good vendors. We’re not going to have much produce yet. We are going to do the basket giveaway we normally do on the last day of the month. We’re going to do it on the first day of the month this year.”

Huddleston said, though, items Farmers Market vendors sell must be either homemade, hand made or homegrown.

“Any business can have a booth promoting their business, but they can’t sell anything,” she said. “Non-profits can promote their non-profits. Last year, I had a church come every Saturday  with literature. I had quite a few people stop and talk to them. There’ll be the usual fresh vegetables, baked goods. There’ll be live chickens, duck eggs, craft items. They can always register to vote at the farmers market.”

Huddleston has been the manager for the Farmers Market for several years, and she said her first experience came after having a booth at the prior year’s market to help register voters. From there, she learned some of what it takes to manage the event.

“I changed a lot of things to try to make it as easy as possible for vendors,” she said. “Previously, they were required to reserve a space and let the manager know Friday if they were going to be there. I found out a lot of vendors don’t know if they’re going to be there Saturday until Friday at midnight. They don’t have to make reservations. They just have to show up.”

The Farmers Market runs from 8 a.m. to noon every Saturday from early May to late September, and normally about mid-morning, Huddleston begins taking payments from vendors for their booths. However, she said some vendors do not do well, and she will work with them to lower their fee if they come back for future markets.

Huddleston said she enjoys seeing people connect with each other at the Farmers Market.

“A lot of times, you see people you haven’t seen in a long time,” she said.

Huddleston likewise enjoys the activity and socialization people get from the market, as well as seeing vendors be successful.

For more information about the market, call 620-624-8832, or visit the Farmers Market in Liberal KS Facebook page. Huddleston said she is excited to start this year’s market.

“I didn’t think I was going to be able to continue,” she said. “I’m happy I’m able to do that and looking forward to what we can do this year.”