It’s been just over a year since the Brownsville Farmers’ Market closed last March for roughly seven months at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, but visitors this Saturday found a return to the bustling market of pre-pandemic times, with a few adjustments.
The market still continues to advocate patrons wear masks and hand sanitizer is plentiful, as vaccinations steadily increase in Brownsville regulars and new visitors to the market have increased as the community begins to feel safe in larger gatherings.
“It’s been a beautiful last couple of weekends. It is getting nice and warm so more people are coming out with their families. We have a lot of people who are bringing, not only the kids, but grandma who just got vaccinated,” said Thania Ugalde Parra, who has been the manager of the Brownsville Wellness Coalition’s market since it reopened in October of 2020.
A large part of her job has involved implementing ways to make the market a safe, yet still fun, experience for visitors in order to support the local vendors that rely on the markets.
“We wanted to make sure there was a safe place for people to come shop and for our vendors to come sell. A lot of our vendors were at home stuck with their produce or their product because everything closed up, but bills still kept coming,” said Ugalde Parra.
Vendor Ruth Wagner came back to sell her eclectic mixture of baked goods, produce, imported coffee and other home goods just last month. While she and her husband have been a steady presence at the market since it started 13 years ago, the early months of the pandemic made staying on at the market too big of a risk and Wagner closed up shop around Thanksgiving.
“It just got too bad and we said, ‘No. We are elderly and we’re not going to go back until it’s safe’,” said Wagner.
Now freshly vaccinated and through the two-week waiting period, Wagner and her husband are back at the market.
For Wagner as Brownsville gets vaccinated and conditions improve she hopes it will herald a return of a beloved missing element at the market.
“I’m waiting until they can open up this square in the middle. They had tables and chairs and people would sit and visit, and it’s not safe enough yet, but when they do that it’s really good. It becomes sort of like the market square and it’s a social thing,” she said
The square served as a fun place for families and visitors to take in the live music of the market and enjoy some food or drinks before perusing the stalls of vendors or meeting friends.
“I’m looking forward to that happening again,” said Wagner.
While Ugalde Parra is still focused on creating a safe space for the market’s patrons, it’s not the only project she has in the works for the market as Brownsville moves out of the immediate chaos of the pandemic.
Currently and in the future she plans to have a vendor or organization give a short presentation each week alongside gardening classes and other activities for patrons. On the vendor side, a digital initiative has been launched to have profiles of each vendor and collect data to help the Brownsville Wellness Coalition research and track the market’s economic impact in the community.
Following a tumultuous year of navigating her new position, Ugalde Parra is excited about the future when the market will move to its new home at the Quonset Hut next year.
“We are definitely here to stay and we have a lot of beautiful things coming for Brownsville next year,” she said.
