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,[…]
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[…]
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!
A few photos of market set up in July. Look for even more improvements in displays and systems coming up.
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[…]
Our brand new project, Happy Foods Mobile Market.
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[…]
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:[…]
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 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[…]
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.
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[…]
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,[…]
Mississippi Delta Council for Farmworker Opportunities, Inc.’s Beginner Farmer and Rancher Program, funded by USDA Rural Development is starting up again! With our community partner organizations, we are recruiting and training a minimum of sixty produce growers to address the demand for fresh and “value added” fruits and vegetables. Interested in joining our other growers[…]
Our new partnership with AARP Foundation means that SNAP customers can double their spending up to $10 on fresh produce at with our market vendors. Spend up to $10 with your SNAP card and get the same amount in Fresh Savings tokens to spend on fresh fruits and vegetables. Fresh Savings accepted at Crossroads Farmers[…]
Join us and so many of our friends, farmer workers, and community colleagues in historic Marks, MS. Quitman County Mules & Blues Fest – Oct. 2-3, 2015 The talent line up is not kidding around and includes Kingston Fisher, Super Chikan, and Denise LaSalle. They are organizing a 5K walk/run to benefit veterans – fitness[…]
Another exciting project in our area that opened in June this year is the Delta Muletrain Regional Market in Marks, MS. Some of our producers, partners, and colleagues are involved in the project, which includes a museum, food court, art, mules, and history. Video from Mississippi Public Broadcasting shows what’s happening. Marks, MS is where a people’s caravan[…]
Clifton Lockett is a leading producer for the MDCFWOI program and his gardens have been a demonstration site for our partners to see the practice and potential of what we are working to develop here in the Mississippi Delta. Robbie Pollard owner of Happy Food Mobile Market; Clifton Lockett, MDCFWOI/Crossroad Farmers Market participant & Owner of[…]
Mississippi Delta Council for Farmworkers’s Crossroad Farmers Market partnered with AARP and USDA to encourage and assist our vendors while encouraging customers to use EBT/SNAP. Customers who are SNAP recipients who make purchases of ten dollars will receive an additional ten dollars worth of produce at no out-of-pocket cost—their ten dollars can be doubled in fresh Mississippi Delta-grown produce. The[…]
The Crossroads Farmers Market arose as a project of the Mississippi Delta Council for Farm Workers Opportunities, Inc. (MDCFWOI), a job training and placement agency, because of needs in our community for farmworkers to increase earnings and for low-income consumers to have easier access to quality, local fresh food. The Farmers Market Promotion Program of[…]
Some of our vendors, as well as the MDC Crossroads Farmers Market itself, can now accept EBT, debit, and credit cards. We know this is important as a way of increasing access to fresh food. EBT accepted here. We welcome SNAP benefits.
Civil Rights, Then and Now Dr. Hilliard Lawrence Lackey, III and Howard L. Feinstein Thursday, July 17, 2014 at Noon Madison Shannon Palmer High School Library 1315 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, Marks, MS This year marks the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer. Join us to discuss civil rights then and now, with Dr. Lackey,[…]
Anticipated Opening Weekend for MDC Crossroads Farmers Market 2014: Friday, July 18 and Saturday, July 19 Meet our farmers. Purchase fresh, local Mississippi Delta produce. • MDC Crossroads Farmers Market will be able to accept SNAP, debit, and credit card payments (EBT), making POS payment capacity available to all MDC Crossroads Market Vendors. A number of our[…]
• In February, MDCFWOI helped approximately 10 producers apply and become approved for NAP (Noninsured Crop Disaster Insurance), Federal insurance managed by the USDA Farm Services Agency system that covers vegetable and other crops for limited-resource farmers. • MDCFWOI is helping qualifying farmers in our network, including those producing on “backyard farms,” to obtain hoop[…]
Watch this space this and next week for new photos and news about the 2014 season of the farmers market out at our warehouse on DeSoto in Clarksdale, MS. We’re adding EBT/SNAP option. We have cold storage for our vendors. And in the background, we’re working with our vendors to develop ways to get their[…]
Area school food service directors tour produce processing facility in Marks, MS. Mississippi Delta Council for Farm Worker Opportunities, Inc., with Alcorn State University and Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative/Women in Agriculture hosted a tour of the vegetable processing plant in Marks, MS for area public school district food service directors. Our growers will have[…]
Installing industrial-sized cold storage in the warehouse, on the site of our farmers market in Clarksdale—soon to be filled with Mississippi Delta Grown produce grown by our independent small-farm growers. If you are a farmworker growing vegetables on a small farm or plot in the Mississippi Delta and may be interested in participating in projects[…]
Mississippi Delta Council for Farm Workers Opportunities Inc and Alcorn State University will work together to market fresh and frozen vegetables to consumers in the Mississippi Delta. MDCFWOI will provide two refrigerated trucks to transport vegetables to the processing plant and from the plant to local schools. Also, MDCFWOI has a commercial freezer that will[…]
Colleagues Bonita Conwell and Gloria Sturdevant speaking this week at Rooting Wealth in Little Rock. Their topic—Back to the Future: Farms, Food, and Renewal in the Deep South.
Re-posted from the USDA Blog Farmers markets have become a critical ingredient to our nation’s economy, food systems, and communities. Connecting rural to urban, farmer to consumer, and fresh ingredients to our diets, farmers markets are becoming economic and community centerpieces in cities and towns across the U.S. Over the weekend, I had the opportunity[…]
The following article By JESSE Wright appeared in the Press Register on Thursday, August 22, 2013: New endeavor has already received grant from US Dept. of Agriculture Tuesday afternoon a handful of farmers from the Delta spread their vegetables out under a tarp on Highway 49. The Crossroads Farmer’s Market was open for business. The[…]
Today, we partnered with Alcorn State University’ Extension Program providing Mississippi Delta’s grown watermelons on the lunch menu of the three schools (Quitman County Elementary, Quitman Middle and Madison Shannon Palmer High) in Quitman County School District. Over 1,500 students, teachers and staff! We received coverage in the Quitman County Democrat. Mr. French Miller, Food[…]