Thursdays on the Quad for URI grown FREE Farmers Market for University Students

URI Free Farmers Market opens Thursday, Sept. 10

 The University of Rhode Island’s annual Free Farmers Market for students opens Thursday, Sept. 10, kicking off another season of fresh, free produce harvested from URI farms.

The market takes place every Thursday on the Quad from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and outside of Mackal-Tootell (near the Ryan Center) from 2:30 to 4 p.m. through Oct. 29. Both locations offer free produce to URI students (while supplies last). On bad-weather days, the market moves inside to Fogarty Hall and Tootell Aquatic Center.

Follow @URIfreefarmersmarket or see the Free Farmers Market website for additional bonus pick-up locations to celebrate the market’s fall kickoff on Sept. 10, and receive ongoing news and updates during the season.

URI Grown 

Veggies picked at URI’s on-campus Teaching Garden by students like Abbey Lanier ’25, a recent Nutrition graduate (URI Photos / Nora Lewis)

Veggies and fruits offered at the weekly market are grown by students in URI’s plant sciences program at the Gardiner Crops Research Center on the edge of campus. As a land-grant university, food production is part of URI’s curriculum and exemplifies a pillar of URI’s land-grant mission.

URI is one of only a few New England colleges that provide this kind of free, homegrown market. Farm-to-table turnaround is less than 24 hours, with farm-fresh produce gathered on Wednesdays and distributed to students on Thursdays. Last year, the farm yielded more than 10,000 pounds of produce, shared with approximately 2,000 students.

Peckham Farm contributes farm fresh eggs and URI Master Gardeners coordinate the harvest of apples from East Farm.

Kelli Kidd, Amanda Missimer and Rebecca Brown coordinate the Farmers Market program with support from student volunteers and managers, URI Health Promotion, the Department of Nutrition, Cooperative Extension, and the URI Vegetable Production Program.

All URI students are welcome to visit the market and are encouraged to bring a reusable shopping bag. Volunteers and interns are also welcome.