Farmview Market of Madison hosted its annual Local Heroes event on June 29. The event offered free meals to current and retired military members, law enforcement, veterans, healthcare professionals, and more, in appreciation of their services.
During the event, qualifying visitors received a barbecue lunch as their free meal inside the market. The outdoor area consisted of the seasonal farmers market, firetrucks, and an adoption event from the Jasper County Animal Shelter.
According to Victoria Edmans, Farmview’s marketing manager, Local Heroes has been a recurring event for five or six years. The celebration is typically scheduled during the Fourth of July weekend, but Farmview decided to host the event a week earlier.
“This year, with the Fourth of July being in the middle of the week, we thought, let’s try the week before,” she said. “That way, people are still able to celebrate the Fourth.”
Edmands said she spent two months working on this year’s event planning process. She credits Keith Kelly, president of Farmview, for creating the recurring event.
“He has a connection to the military and just has it in his heart that we should be able to give back,” Edmands said. “So, it kind of started as a way to do that.”
Farmview is typically a popular spot for dining on the weekends, especially during the summer with the outdoor farmer’s market. Edmands expected the event to result in an even larger turnout.
“We’ve got the farmer’s market going on, and usually, the Local Heroes will bring their families with them,” said Edmands. “So, then we, of course, have more people.”
With another successful year hosting the celebration at Farmview, Edmands hopes that Local Heroes, along with other events, can help unite the community.
“I think that doing the events like this, like Ag Fest, Spring Fest, the other events that we do,” she said. “It’s just a way to help connect people with others in the community.”
As a Morgan County Sherriff’s Department captain, Derrick Reid has been working in the community for nearly 15 years. He personally decided to attend Local Heroes to thank Farmview for their time and dedication to the event.
“I want to show my gratitude by coming out and enjoying the fellowship and breaking bread with the rest of the people, the men and women that serve with me,” he said.
With the event's celebration, Reid has appreciated Farmview’s recognition of local heroes. He credits the market and the community as big factors in making the Sherriff’s Department’s work possible.
“Without the community's support, we could not do what we do,” he said. “This is a team effort and a team full of servants.”
Overall, Reid believes that the support is “a reflection of the community” and that it is important to express gratitude for it. He hopes that the Local Heroes event will stand as an example to the community for the importance of supporting one another.
“We [the community] serve each other in different capacities, but at the end of the day, it is about service,” he said. “So, I hope that in a bigger picture, the community sees this is how we support each other.”
The farmer’s market has been an ongoing attraction for many years and was one of the multiple features of the Local Heroes celebration.
The seasonal market typically runs during the summer, where small businesses sell products such as produce, artisan work, and even baked goods.
As a longtime seller at the farmer’s market, Jan Sullivan works as a Realtor and owns Bakery Blessings as a side job. She enjoys working at the farmer’s market for the community it brings.
“I enjoy seeing the people that come a lot,” she said. “We get to be in the community.”
According to Sullivan, the realty industry faced a “freeze” a few years back, and she began to rely on the farmer’s market for part of her income.
“I was depending on this heavily. I was doordashing, just trying to get by,” she said. “This was a saving grace for me to be able to have an extra [option].”
Sullivan believes that the community must support the small businesses of the farmer’s market because of the financial support they bring. She reasons that several of the artisans do the job for fun but can also use the extra cash.
“With everything being so high priced these days, people are starting to rely on their crafts to help pay the bills,” she said, “but it also helps your community grow. To see where I make work and invest back into it, it is very important that we do that.”