Celebrating 15 Years of the Market That ‘Could Never Be’

Once upon a time in 2010 at a community meeting, a local resident told our founding members that it would be impossible to get a farmers market running in Jersey City Heights. “The farmers would never come out here,” she said. Boy, was she wrong.

The Riverview Farmers Market was the brain-child of a group of local Heights residents who were answering the call of a citywide challenge to come up with projects that would foster environmental sustainability in Jersey City. The founding group included Mo Kinberg, Lisa Blando, Destenė Styles, Adrienne McCauley, Trish Ocone, and Beverly Brown.

In their first meeting, they decided they wanted a way to advocate for access to diversely sourced and locally produced foods for our community – an effort to both combat the negative impact of mass-produced food and eliminate long-distance travel from original food sources. They aligned on four founding principles:

Food would be locally grown and produced
Farm didn’t have to be certified organic, but would employ organic and no pesticide practices
Affordability for all residents and EBT/WIC/SNAP would be accepted
Market promotion would include community engagement and lifting up the cherished culture and diversity of the Heights

At their first community meeting to seek guidance on how to get a market up and running, one resident said that they could “never get a farmers market going in our neighborhood. Farmers would not come and it would fail.” Fortunately, we all know the ending to this story, but perhaps are less familiar with what happened in between.

For the next several months the group reached out to local farmers to gauge interest, worked with the City to adhere to all administrative requirements, and got help from friends at the Washington Park Association and the Riverview Neighborhood Association to create our own non-profit to run the market: Farms in the Heights (FITH).

Our very first farm vendor was Scott Rowe of Natures Own Farm. With Scott on board, they held the first ever Riverview Farmers Market on June 12, 2011. Opening day included a fabulous roster of local food producers and businesses, some of which are still vendors at the market today (in bold):

Natures Own Farm
Alstede Farms
Uncle Bud’s Sauces and rubs
Honey Bakery
Pizza Vita Mobile
Cocoa Bakery
JC Veggie Burgers
Pickle-iscious
Gourmet Nuts and Dried Fruit
X-Calibur Knifes and Scissor Sharpening
Home Economics
Artist: Richard La Rovere
Aurora Naturals of Hunterdon
Riverview Neighborhood Association

Original flyer promoting the first Riverview Farmers Market in June 2011.

Kinberg served as the first President of the Board of Farms in the Heights and guided the organization through its early growth with vision and persistence. In an email she sent to the founding group the day before the first market on June 11, 2011, she wrote: “Just want to thank all of you in advance of our first market for all of the hard work you have all put into this project. It’s been a really good experience collaborating with all of you. I know that tomorrow is going to be a huge success and look forward to a series of great markets, amazing programming and getting to know all of you and our community better.”

Hand-drawn map of Riverview Park circa June 2011 that depicts the layout of the first Riverview Farmers Market.

She was later succeeded by Mark Bunbury and currently by Rachel Meyers, both of whom have carried forward the same strong leadership, mission integrity, and true compassion for our community. Our current volunteer board consists of Rachel Meyers, founding member Beverly Brown Ruggia, Megan Wintersteen, Adam Sachs, Abigail Martone, Mallory Fahey, Katie Stein, Dane Calcagni, Allison Lee, and Market Manager Erika Spencer.

In the 15 years since the Riverview Farmers Market was conceived, we’ve been so proud to serve this beautiful community and Hudson County at large. When we think back over our tenure in Riverview Park, here are a few accomplishments that bring big smiles to our faces:

Our Market has the most successful farmers market SNAP/EBT access program in the city and one of the most successful in the tri-state area.
We’ve served as the incubator for several local businesses that now have physical brick and mortar locations in the Heights. This includes Modcup, Lucky Honeybee, and Rudo Plants & Home, just to name a few.
We somehow survived the 2020 season, which included hosting the farmers market in a park that was being renovated during an international pandemic with weekly changes to health and safety regulations surrounding crowds and food.
Beyond a farmers market, we’ve become an important community gathering space in this corner of Jersey City and host some of the most iconic cultural and celebratory events in the area, including the Peach Pie Contest & Festival, Fall Harvest Festival, one-of-a-kind Day of the Dead Celebration, and recently added Heights Holiday Market.

All of this to say that none of this would be possible without the incredible support of our patrons, the City, donors, local businesses, sponsors, partners, volunteers, and especially our vendors. What started as a seemingly impossible idea has grown into a thriving community cornerstone and it never could’ve happened without you. Cheers to a 15-year legacy and to the next 15 years and beyond.

If you would like to make a tax deductible donation to the Riverview Farmers Market to support free community programming and farmers market operating costs, please visit our Donate page here.