Chapel+Hill+Local+Farmer's+Market

**__The Chapel Hill Local Farmer's Market__**  On Saturday, October 21st, I volunteered at the Chapel Hill Local Farmer's Market. The market is comprised of 10 or 15 vendors that all grow or produce their product within 60 miles of Chapel Hill. The Farmer's Market is associated with a program called the Farmer's Market Coalition. This Coalition pairs farmer's markets with local institutions to bring fresh produce to people in need. People can either donate money, or donate veggies that they buy. All of the donated money will be used to buy produce from the vendors to donate to the institution ( so it's a win-win relationship.) I helped out with this by weighing the donated produce, handling the donations, giving people "tokens" to use in place of credit or debit cards, helping the vendors, and other odd jobs. What I learned from this event was how important local farmers are, and how much fresh food can impact the community. Farmers Markets like these really benefit small farmers and encourage healthy agriculture. I realized that there are so many options of fresh food and even household products that are environmentally friendly and pesticide-chemical free. There was one woman who made her own beauty products in Durham that were completely natural. I talked to her for a while along with other vendors and was pleasantly surprised to learn how passionate all of them were about being environmentally conscious and working to protect the earth. There were many patrons that came to the small farmer's market throughout the day, and it is so encouraging to know that people will learn to eat organic and local foods, use natural products, and support small farmers to help the environment.