News & Events
Market Joins Clarksdale Health Center for Special Event 8/11/18
AEH EVENT CF Market Flyer
2018 Season Opening
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Crossroads Farmers Market 2018 Season Opening Contact: Henry White (443)939-0575 Website: crossroadsfarmersmarket.org Season Opening Crossroads Farmers Market A cooperative farming project of Mississippi Delta Council Farm Workers Opportunities, Inc. “Where fresh produce is rooted and harvested by local farmers” Beginning Saturday, June 23rd, Come to the Crossroads Farmers Market located at[…]
Getting Ready for the 2018 Season
2018 Season Opening: Saturday, June 23, 2018 Crossroads Farmers Market 2018 1536 Desoto Avenue Clarksdale, Mississippi Tuesdays from 4:00 til 7:00 P.M. Saturdays from 7:00 A.M. til 12:00 Noon. And introducing…a Mobile Market! Starting June 25, 2018. Mondays & Wednesdays from 10:00 A.M. until 2:00 P.M. Locations to be announced. We are working up[…]
Key Family Vegetables featured on national farm agency page
Earlier this month, a leader in Mississippi Delta Council’s Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Program (BRFDP) and U.S. Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran, was featured in #fridaysonthefarm, an online learning project of USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Andrew Key owns and farms four acres and is building the business, Key Family Vegetables in Crenshaw, MS. NRCS and the[…]
Beginning Mississippi Delta Farmers Grow for Major Retailer and More
MDCFWOI’s Beginning Farmers have a new agreement with a local Wal-Mart to sell yellow straight neck squash, which is also being sold at our Crossroads Farmers Market in Clarksdale. These samples are from beginning farmer Marvin Weatherby, who farms in Falcon, MS. Mississippi Delta Council is working on agreements with Headstart centers, schools, and prisons[…]
What’s growing in the Delta
Last week, we had kale, cabbage, cucumbers, kale, summer squash, fat red cherry tomatoes, asian eggplants, homemade jams, cooking herbs, and fresh eggs. This weekend, we expect peas, sweet corn, and more squash and cukes. Our growers are farming all kinds of greens, peas, butter beans, green beans, sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew. Chemical[…]
Starting up our 2017 Season
Getting set up and ready, under the canopy that features our market logo and is necessary in the heat of a Mississippi Delta summer. Not fancy yet, but wait until the place is set up and spilling over with fresh Delta-grown, chemical-free produce. Mississippi Delta Council Crossroads Farmers Market Summer 2017 – Opening June 10,[…]
Increasing Capacity for More Successful Small Farming
Under construction a greenhouse/mini high-tunnel by Clifton Lockett of Jonestown, Mississippi.
Farmworkers to Increase Farming Income
Dec. 10, 2016 – Mississippi Delta Council for Farm Worker Opportunities, Inc. hosted evaluation sessions and entrepreneur training for beginning farmers and ranchers at its facility in Clarksdale, MS. The events prepare participants both for starting or improving their own independent direct-to-consumer sales micro businesses and for participation in a collective program aggregating produce for sale to[…]
School District Signs On as Customer for Our Farmers
Big news for us and our program of aggregated produce sales: Quitman County School District contracted with us to order 300 pounds of mustard and turnip greens from MDCFWOI’s Beginning Farmers. That’s a lot of healthy eating in schools in our area of the Mississippi Delta. School cafeterias in this part of the country still cook,[…]
Beginning Farmer Biz Training Keeps Happening
Earlier this week in our training space at the warehouse out on DeSoto in Clarksdale, a workshop for our beginning farmer and rancher program.
Delta Farming Start: A Beginning Farmer & Rancher Program
This week, our staff participated in the Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Development Program (BFRDP) Project Directors Meeting, hosted by USDA and Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service (MOSES). We had a chance to present a few highlights from year one of our BFRDP project, Delta Farming Start. In this three-year project, we provide basic business training (including a[…]
Improving the Market Customer Experience
With some hands-on help and practical ideas from our program and evaluation consultants (who happen to have designed and run a beautiful handmade soap (and more) business in Tucson, AZ), we’re upgrading and reorganizing the look of the market. Prettier looks (especially with our visiting colleague and grants management specialist Juan Pesquiera standing behind the crates), uniform[…]
Oh, what a beautiful morning
It’s not Oklahoma, but Mississippi. And yet… The corn is as high as our grower’s eyes. Aaaand it looks like it’s growing right up to the sky!
Mississippi Delta Small Farm Produce Growers
Mississippi Delta Council for Farmworker Opportunities, Inc. growers in action. #myfarmer Sharing in celebration of National Farmers Market Week (August 2-13, 2016).
Youth Tour Mississippi Delta Small Farms
Youth working with Mississippi Delta Council for Farm Worker Opportunities, Inc. visited mentoring farmers running small, limited resource farms. The youth are involved in a program to learn local farming techniques and promotion, in partnership with Coahoma Agriculture High School (Clarksdale – Coahoma County), along with Quitman County Vocational School Agro-Science Department, (Marks – Quitman County),[…]
Setting up the market – July 2016
A few photos of market set up in July. Look for even more improvements in displays and systems coming up.
2016 Market Season — Open Fridays and Saturdays
We’ve been open since May 27, 2016. Come by for fresh Mississippi Delta grown produce. New this year: Persons sixty years of age and older in Clarksdale, Mississippi will be provided free transportation to Crossroads Farmers Market each Friday. For more information, contact our partners D.A.R.T.S. (Delta Area Rural Transit System), a component of Aaron Henry[…]
Erly Robinson’s Vegetable Farm
Mr. Erly Robinson is one of the participants in the MDC programs.
Fresh Eggs
Ernestine and Dorfus Young, a husband and wife team participating in our Delta Farm Start program deliver eggs to Sweet Magnolia Gelato in Clarksdale, MS. The Youngs and Sweet Magnolia’s founder Hugh Balthrop met through an MDCFWOI quick business planning workshop funded by USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture and conducted by DRAResources and ChangeMatters. Mr. Balthrop is inspired[…]
Mr. Edward’s Agriculture Class
Mr. Edward Wiley’s Agricultural Class at the Quitman County Vocational & Technical School, a partner of Mississippi Delta Council for Farmworkers, Inc.
Wish List – Donations Welcome!
Your Contributions Support Our Work The MDCFWOI team has been working hard in 2015 to sustain long-standing programs, develop initiatives, and respond both to promising opportunities and extraordinary weather disasters. You can help make a difference this next year by contributing financially to this work. Mississippi Delta Council welcomes donations and gifts of in-kind goods[…]
Happy Foods Mobile Market
Our brand new project, Happy Foods Mobile Market.
Announcing the release of our 2015 Annual Report
We are delighted to announce our 2015 annual report. The last financial year has been another period of growth and achievement. We continue to improve evaluation of our existing projects to understand what truly works best for our low-income customers, farmers and vendors, and we are working to expand programs and deepen connections within the community. A message[…]
Looking ahead into 2016
The past year has been an active one for our organization. This year, we hope to do more! MDCFWOI has its sights on plans that will lead toward greater economic opportunity and resiliency among people in the Mississippi Delta. Programs: In 2016, MDCFWOI plans to add a mobile market to the farmers market and an on-site cold[…]
Youth Grower Opportunity and Market Program
MDCFWOI youth growers and mentors participated in the local Producers Meeting plus processing training and tour of Alcorn State University’s vegetable processing facility (April 7, 2016). They are pictured standing underneath the Marks Mule Train commemorative mural painted by our friend and local painter, musician, and art teacher Rosalind Wilcox. At the Delta Regional Mule Train Market &[…]
Clifton Lockett’s Produce Garden
Clifton Lockett is one of our DeltaFarmStart participants. His family has been involved in farming for generations. His farming operation is being mentored and advised from Tougaloo College FarmAid program Alcorn State University. Might not look like much yet…it’s early in the season. But farming takes patience! C
Youth Agriculture Entrepreneur Program
With one of the highest unemployment rate in nation, the Mississippi Delta is a tough place for an aspiring teen to find a summer job. At MDCFWOI, we are working to create a more positive future for our community and that’s why MDCFWOI developed the Youth Grower Opportunity and Market program. The Youth Grower Opportunity and Market Program[…]
Clarksdale Area Flooding – March 2016
During March 10th through 13th, one of the worst natural disasters hit the Clarksdale area. Flooding has displaced over 150 families. Numerous families are still in need of a hotel room. Please help us to obtain additional hotel rooms by making your checks payable to: Mississippi Delta Council 1005 North Street Clarksdale, MS 38614 For:[…]
About Us
Mississippi Delta Council for Farm Workers Opportunities, Inc. Mississippi Delta Council for Farm Worker Opportunities, Inc. (MDCFWOI) was organized in 1971 as a private non-profit corporation to operate programs to assist migrant and seasonal farm workers in Mississippi and to help them seek alternatives to agricultural labor or improve the agricultural lifestyle of those who[…]
Delta FarmStart Participants Get Ready for the 2016 Season
In this post, we’re sharing a few more snapshots of some of the things happening in February, as participants in Mississippi Delta Council’s Delta FarmStart farmworker microenterprise program gets going in 2016. The program, which is funded by USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Beginning Farmer and Rancher Program (BFRDP) helps farmworkers and individuals new to[…]
Our Logo
The market logo refers to local family farmers bringing fresh and local product to the Mississippi Delta. It puts the emphasis squarely on the farm workers who produce and bring local product to consumers. The tagline, A Project of Mississippi Delta Council, recognizes the market’s host institution and its long-standing commitment to opening access, promoting[…]
Business Plan Workshop for Beginning Farmers
Our two-day workshop, February 11-12, 2016, on basic business planning focused on break-even analysis to determine how long it will take for a new farming or ranching business to start making money. We worked together to answer these questions for each participant: Is there a business in this business? and What $500 investment in the business will[…]
More of Our Vendors’ Delta High Tunnels
We’ve got produce growing already for the 2016 season in Marks, Lambert, Crenshaw, Darling, and Tunica, Mississippi. Here are more photos of high tunnels on plots we are working throughout the Mississippi Delta.
Youth Produce Growers Training Program
Mississippi Delta Council Executive Director Don Green met with youth produce growers Jan 16 at our warehouse and training facility, 1536 Desoto Avenue, Clarksdale. Exciting new program of entrepreneurship, farming way of life, youth responsibility and leadership. Working with local high schools, community financial institutions, business and farming mentors. For more info, contact Samuel McCray[…]
Community Support for Local Couple
Our friends, Sam and Bernestine McCray, at the Mississippi Delta Council warehouse fundraiser Tuesday evening receiving emergency relief of $2600 collected from the community. The McCray family home in Marks, MS was completely destroyed in the pre-Christmas tornados. Sam is our lead farm and food hub organizer, creative program developer, inclusive partnership-builder, and passionate advocate for farmworkers and their[…]
December 2015 Tornados Destroys Home of Local Leader
The home of one of our community’s key leaders at Mississippi Delta Council for Farmworker Opportunities, Inc. was completely destroyed by the tornado that touched down near Marks just days before Christmas. Sam McCray is known by many in the Delta as the retired field office staffer for Congressman Bennie Thompson working mostly in Coahoma,[…]