Local Hero Awardee: Westfield Farmers’ Market
Since 2003, CISA has recognized farmers, institutions, businesses, and everyday community members whose work helps sustain local agriculture. The Westfield Farmers’ Market was presented with a 2026 Local Hero Award at CISA’s annual meeting on April 14, 2026, with these remarks:
The Westfield Farmers’ Market is a fully volunteer-run, community-based farmers’ market which draws 10,000 visitors each season to shop with around 20 vendors per week, three quarters of which are typically farmers. The market accepts HIP and SNAP, and serves as a community hub and information center in many ways. But, of course, what we see now is never where major efforts like this started.
The original Westfield Farmers’ Market began in 2007 on the central green in town as a project of the Westfield BID. Eventually, lost grant funding and roadwork pushed it out of its home, and the market spent a summer in the hot parking lot of a Family Dollar before the Episcopal Church of the Atonement offered its front lawn as a new location for the market in 2015 – an ideal location, accessible by public transportation and within walking distance for many lower-income Westfield residents.
Market Manager Lisa Zlody came on as a volunteer in 2018 and stepped up to the role of manager in 2022, She told me that the goals of the market are straightforward: to promote and sustain local agriculture, and to assist people who are struggling to keep their families fed. So I want to talk about what that looks like.
The Westfield Farmers’ Market is a HIP and SNAP vendor. SNAP is the federal program formerly known as food stamps, and HIP is the state-run program that provides an instant rebate when shoppers use SNAP to buy produce from approved local farms and markets. Farmers’ markets are essential access points for people who rely on these programs for food, and these programs are essential sources of income for local farmers. The Westfield Farmers’ Market serving as an approved vendor means that eligible vendors can participate even if they aren’t individually approved, which is a big deal for smaller businesses, and because the state hasn’t approved new HIP vendors since 2022. In addition to these programs, the Westfield Farmers Market fundraises to offer a $15 SNAP match each week, which helps lower-income shoppers stretch their dollars a little further. Last year, the market distributed nearly $8 thousand dollars to shoppers in matching funds, all raised by volunteers through business sponsorships and individual donations.
Each week, specially trained volunteers staff the SNAP table, which is about more than just ringing people up correctly. Lisa told me that every day during the season, they have customers coming up and saying “I just got SNAP, how does it work? What is HIP, and how do I access it?” Every week the volunteers are helping customers maximize their benefits and get as much food as they can and perhaps just as importantly, make sure they know that they are welcome and wanted at the market.
The market also runs a program called POP Club, so kids between the ages of 4 and 14 get a $2 voucher for fruits and vegetables every time they come to the market, and there’s a volunteer who signs kids up for that every week. A couple volunteers manage setup and breakdown every week, and one serves as a floater to give vendors or other volunteers a break. There’s another volunteer who hands out market loyalty cards. And this is all on market days – there’s so much more happening behind the scenes to coordinate weekly live music at the market, activities for kids and families, community groups that come and table at the market, and so more than I could possibly say in this little presentation. So when I say that this market runs on volunteers, that is true to an almost dizzying degree. I want to acknowledge a couple people who Lisa told me are part of the core group that keeps all these plates spinning, some of whom are with us tonight: Sandi Albom – rector of the church, Rebecca Thomas, Bernadette Toomey, and Sheila Elmer. Lisa said to me: “We’re here to support our farmers as our farmers support us.”
So, for serving as a crucial food access point and a viable farmers’ market for the Westfield community and beyond, and for the deeply community-based model on which it runs, I’m proud to present a Local Hero award to the Westfield Farmers’ Market.
