Morinville Farmers’ Market has found a manager

Morinville Farmers' Market Manager Korien Sampson poses with one of the market signs. After a few weeks of worry there would be no market this year, Sampson's taking on the position has allowed the market to proceed. - Stephen Dafoe Photo
By Stephen Dafoe

Morinville – After a few weeks of worry that Morinville’s Farmers Market may be absent from Morinville’s downtown core this summer due to the lack of a manager, one has been found. The Friends of the Morinville Public Library have procured the services of Korien Sampson to take on the role of market manager this year, saving both the market and an important funding source for the library.

Sampson, who has lived in Morinville for the past 16 years, was one of two candidates for the position. A mother who home schools four children, Sampson said she is looking forward to managing the market.

“I love organizing things,” she said. “Farmers’ markets are great for small towns. It’s wonderful because we can get out produce, our meat, our veggies, eggs. You can get them all so much cheaper and healthier because your food has not travelled 5,000 miles to get here.”

The new market manager explained there will be some changes to the market this year, some minor and some major. Minor changes include introducing a revised form for vendors and ensuring stricter guidelines are put in place to ensure food and health and safety standards are completely up to code.

“The vendors can be rest assured that we’re following protocols and guidelines,” Sampson said. “It kind of gives them reassurance that we know what we’re doing and the public can also take advantage of that too. They’ll be more confident in what we are doing and selling.”

But the big change this year is the expansion of the market. Not only will visitors to the Morinville Farmers’ Market find produce and products along 100 Avenue from the Town Offices to the Chamber building; they’ll find vendors in the parking lot out back as well. The Town of Morinville is allowing the market to expand to the parking lot, allowing a greater variety of vendors.

“That’s actually quite exciting,” Sampson said of the expansion. “We’re hoping to have anybody and everybody that would like to participate in the Farmers’ Market this year.”

The Morinville Farmers’ Market is scheduled to begin June 3 and will run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays until Sept. 30.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

1 Comment

Comments are closed.