Starkville Community Market has the goods
The typical scene of the Starkville Community Market holds a collection of fresh produce, baked goods, and homemade jellies and jams.
Saturday was no different, except there were a few extra things to behold.
The Greater Starkville Development Partnership and Chickfil-a of Starkville worked together for the Christmas edition of the Starkville Community Market at Fire Station Park on Saturday.
The special event was called the “Holly Jolly Market,” and instead of the ideal community shopping around local produce and cottage food vendors, citizens were presented with to-go cookies, ornament painting kits for children, and pictures with Santa Claus himself.
Brian Hawkins is the Marketing Director for Chick-fil-a of Starkville, and he felt that this special edition of the community
market was needed for the city of Starkville.
“Our team wanted to do something for the community, to give back to them and to spread a little bit of joy this holiday season,” Hawkins said. “We felt like the community needed a good little fun event like this to put smiles on everyone’s faces because this has been just a tough year.”
While the Starkville Community Market is usually a local farmers market that offers a fine selection of produce, fresh-baked goods, and homemade jellies and jams, Saturday’s version of the market had a little holiday twist.
While there were still farmers and food vendors at the market, Chick-fil-a’s team brought in cookies, ornament painting kits, cow plushies, and they had the famous Chick-fil-a cow mascot along with Santa Claus there for the children to greet and interact with.
“It was just a fun little get-together,” Hawkins said. “We had a lot of families there with their children in Christmas apparel. We had everybody socially distanced and wearing their masks to keep everyone safe. It was a real fun morning because everybody was able to enjoy themselves. It was a good crowd. Thankfully, the weather held off this morning and it turned out being a really nice event.”
Paige Watson is the Special Events and Projects Coordinator for the Greater Starkville Development Partnership, and she is responsible for most of the city’s events, including the community market.
Like Hawkins, Watson believed that a special event like this was what the community needed after going through such a difficult year.
“I know several parents mentioned that Santa sightings were slim to none, so the market board hopes this event provided a fun activity even through the tough year,” Watson said. “We certainly appreciate everyone coming out and hope they enjoyed it.
Any market that can include more programming or family activities is a huge win for the vendors, customers, and the market. We had nearly 400 customers compared to 150250 typical Saturday.”
For Watson, she feels that Chick-fil-a’s help was a huge factor in Saturday’s turnout.
“We are very grateful for Chick-fil-a’s sponsorship because they in turn helped us provide Santa Claus, as well as the cookies and ornament painting kits to go,” Watson said. “Although we made the decision to do those take-home style due to the rise in cases, we do think people appreciated the activities and gifts from the market this morning.”
Watson also said that the special Christmas market, along with the Halloween market earlier this year could become an annual habit.
“I think the community really stepped up and supported our vendors and attended our special Halloween and Christmas markets,” Watson said. “We hope to include these in our programming in the future and make them even better in years to come.”