‘Why can’t we have nice things?’: Richmond farmers market helps fill the grocery gap

When 78-year-old Patricia Carlin needs groceries, she ordinarily departs her tranquil, waterfront community of Marina Bay. Like many of her neighbors, she might make the trip to grocery stores outside Richmond to nearby cities like El Cerrito or Berkeley. She said Marina Bay is like a lovely bubble, but it’s also a bubble without a grocery store. 

“If you’re going to go shopping, it’s going to be a little bit of an adventure,” Carlin said.

But on Sundays, fresh produce comes to the neighborhood, thanks to a new farmers market that began operating at the parking lot in Marina Bay Park in April. Since then, the market has served as a source of fruit and vegetables as well as crafts for residents. Vendors set up just across from Carlin’s townhouse complex. 

All Carlin has to do is cross the street. 

“So I’m very happy,” Carlin said. “I think it works well for everybody. They’re selling. I’m buying. And we have a good time.” 

Marina Bay residents call for a farmers market

When Grocery Outlet opened in Richmond in 2013, the discount retailer drew hundreds for a grand opening ceremony. But the grocery gap has persisted. National brand grocers have precise calculations for deciding whether to open in a certain neighborhood based on household income and levels of education, said District 3 Council Member Doria Robinson. 

“There are a lot of smaller markets that are starting up, or converting from liquor stores to stores that carry some produce, which is amazing. But the prices are high,” Robinson said. “Food access is not just whether or not there’s a store near your house – which, for many people, there isn’t a store near their house.” 

“Why not Richmond? Why can’t we have nice things?”

Farmers markets can help fill some of that gap, and Marina Bay residents had been asking for one to open in their neighborhood. Marina Bay was developed in the 1980s as a planned waterfront community. Residents there live in townhouses and condos beside parks and trails, and can hop on the ferry into San Francisco. 

That’s part of what drew Marina Bay resident Edgar Gee to the neighborhood. After Gee and his wife married in 2019, they started looking at houses and settled in Marina Bay, which he said is a hidden gem more affordable than other parts of the Bay Area. But Gee was frustrated by the lack of grocery stores.

“Why not Richmond? Why can’t we have nice things?” Gee said. “It’s such a beautiful city, we have such great history, and we just don’t get to show that to the rest of the Bay Area.” 

Gee said he doesn’t usually get involved in politics, but decided to make the case to his local council member, District 5 Councilmember Gayle McLaughlin, that change was needed. He met with McLaughlin to voice his concerns. The conversation soon turned to whether a farmers market could be a start to providing healthy food in the area. 

Gee now drops by the Marina Bay farmers market as regularly as he can, and appreciates knowing where their food comes from. 

40 years of farmers markets

The Marina Bay farmers market is new, but Richmond has had a farmers market for roughly four decades. The Richmond Certified Farmers Market, now operating at the main branch of the Richmond Public Library at Civic Center Plaza, opened in the 1980s when farmers markets were uncommon in California. 

Big agriculture was putting small family farmers at risk of going extinct, said Tom Cloman, president of the Richmond Certified Farmers Market and one of the founders. 

Cloman grew up on farms in Louisiana, and his dad was a farmer as well as a sharecropper. He learned as a child to appreciate “nature at its best” and put his hands in the dirt, dropping a tiny seed, and seeing the green sprout reaching to the sky. 

He moved to Berkeley in 1970, and worked at the Consumers Co-op of Berkeley before moving to Richmond a few years later, joining the push to open a farmers market. Richmond’s farmers market started on a dirt lot next to a Catholic Church on Macdonald Avenue and Broadway, Cloman said.

“It is a major benefit to small farmers,” Cloman said. “I think it saved that part of agriculture, because they bring it directly from the farm to the table.” 

Cloman said support from the city government gave them the opportunity to bring another farmers market to Marina Bay. 

“Generally speaking, that community has zero fresh fruits and vegetables,” Cloman said. “We are careful to listen, and try to provide the kind of market that the community is requesting.” 

The Marina Bay market, Cloman said, is still beginning to take shape and build its roots. He estimated 500-600 people visited the farmers market the day it opened, and a steady stream of residents have dropped by since. Now community leaders are focused on spreading the word and gathering feedback. 

At the Civic Center farmers market, residents who use CalFresh EBT benefits can receive up to an additional $10 for fresh fruit and vegetables. Cloman hopes that system will eventually be available at the Marina Bay farmers market. 

Establishing bonds between residents and farmers

On a recent Sunday at the farmers market, 67-year-old Akiko Sharp was beaming as she filled her bag with vegetables. Sharp, who has lived in the neighborhood for nearly four decades, showed off her white carrots and lettuce. Her husband and small dog were close by. 

“I’m so happy,” Sharp said. “I get to see the people and buy fresh vegetables and fruit.” 

She loves to buy her food from the Queen of Vegetables Organic Farm, and has bonded with the owner, Yadira Mendiola. 

Mendiola, a single mom of three from Mexico, has five acres in the Salinas areas and another five acres in Royal Oaks. 

She is the first from her family to run such a business, and said it has not been easy. But selling directly to customers at a farmers market means more of the profit stays with her instead of going to a distributor. She loves talking to customers and fostering an appreciation for organic food. 

“It’s business, we understand that, but the intention is for the Queen of Vegetables to be in every place that’s local,” Mendiola said. “My purpose is to help my community.” 

Carlin, the Marina Bay resident who lives across the street, was at the farmers market too that day, searching for asparagus. She returned with zucchini as well as a Father’s Day gift for her son, and could not resist buying fresh fruit, which she described as “spectacular.” 

She usually goes to farmer’s markets with a plan, and said she always buys something. She mingles with the vendors, some of whom know her by name. 

“I had been looking for cucumbers the last few weeks, and this was the first week I found some,” Carlin said. “It’s a farmers market, you get what grows.”