Fun is "POPping" at the Farmers Market
This season, PCFMA’s farmers markets are welcoming fun new educational activities for kids of all ages: the POP Club.
The “POP” in POP Club stands for “Power of Produce.” The POP Club celebrates the flavors and benefits of fresh produce while teaching young eaters where their food comes from. POP Club activities include scavenger hunts throughout the market to find seasonal fruits and vegetables, taste tests of seasonal produce, and hands-on lessons about how different plants grow, from their roots to their leaves and all of the edible parts in between.
The Farmers Market Coalition developed the POP Club program, which has been implemented by hundreds of farmers markets throughout the nation. At PCFMA, the POP Club will be overseen by Emma Silver, PCFMA’s new Community Engagement Manager, and the team that she is putting together. “I’m excited to bring these activities to kids throughout the Bay Area at PCFMA’s farmers markets,” she said. “I’m equally excited to be able to share what we are doing locally with the Farmers Market Coalition and farmers markets throughout the country.”
PCFMA’s first POP Club event will be Sunday, March 9, at the Martinez Farmers Market. The POP Club team is working with PCFMA’s market managers now to schedule POP Club events at farmers markets throughout the Bay Area during the 2025 farmers market season. Upcoming POP Club events will be announced in PCFMA’s email newsletter for each farmers market and on the Facebook and Instagram pages for the farmers market.
Emma says that she and her team will be working on new activities to add to the already robust POP Club curriculum. “We would love to build lessons that orient kids to the origins of their food and deepen their relationship with the produce they eat. We look forward to diving deeper into the important role that worms play in soil health and the essential role of bees and other pollinators in food production. Sharing these lessons with young people today will hopefully encourage them to be supporters of sustainable agriculture and promoting a healthier food system as they become adults.”
Over the next several years, the Farmers Market Coalition will organize and host a community of practice that connects PCFMA and other farmers markets around the nation that are using the POP Club curriculum. Through this community of practice, PCFMA will share the new educational lessons developed locally so they can be replicated by farmers markets in other communities.
PCFMA’s implementation of the POP Club in its farmers markets is supported by a Specialty Crop Block Grant from the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
