Larson farmers market begins June 25

MOSES LAKE - Moses Lake residents will soon be able to get fresh fruits and vegetables and other locally-made goods two days out of the week instead of just one.

The Moses Lake Farmers Market at Larson will celebrate its opening day June 25 - and continue each Wednesday through October. The Larson market will take place from 4 to 7 p.m. each week at Doolittle Park.

The main Moses Lake Farmers Market will still be held at McCosh Park from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. each Saturday. The McCosh Park market began its season last month and will go until Oct. 25.

The new Larson market is being launched in cooperation with the Grant County Health District. Theresa Adkinson, of the health district, said the agency wanted to come up with a way to give Larson residents better access to fresh food.

They approached the farmers market group a while back to come up with ideas, and eventually decided to create the Larson market, she said.

"The amazing and awesome thing about this project is it will belong to the Moses Lake Farmers Market, we're just helping them get it started," Adkinson said during a recent health district meeting. "They are very knowledgeable about local produce and how to run this market and they were excited about this opportunity."

She said the Larson market will feature the Market Match program, a pilot program that will hopefully expand to the McCosh Park market and the Ephrata Farmers Market. The farmers market already allows Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients to use their benefits to buy fresh produce.

With the Market Match program, those benefits will essentially double, Adkinson said.

"Eventually we want to take the program to the Saturday market and to the Ephrata market as we go into future seasons and as the program expands," she said. "We want to take this opportunity to get families access to affordable, fresh fruits and vegetables."