Seeds of Hope Farmers' Market bringing fresh food to West Ashley

CHARLESTON - John's Island farmer Joseph Fields is a busy man.

In addition to cultivating 50 acres of certified organically grown produce, he also hauls his bounty to a different farmers' market every day of the week, and two on Saturdays.

"A lot of people want fresh produce, and that's what we do," Fields said.

One of the markets Fields utilizes is located at John Wesley United Methodist Church at 626 Savannah Hwy., 8 a.m. - noon, on Saturdays during the growing season.

Fields grows a wide variety of produce. Currently squash, green onions, peas, butter beans, canteloupe, watermelon and a few other fruits and vegetables are in season, he said.

The market is affiliated with the Seeds of Hope program that was created in 1986 by a group of churches in the Columbia area as a local response to the problem of word-wide hunger, said Gary Phillips, a pastor at John Wesley.

"This is the market's second year here," Phillips said.

Technically it's the fourth or fifth year because the church had hosted a market for a couple of years more than a decade ago, Phillips added, but it wasn't sustained. Last year the church decided to try again.

Fields keeps all of the money he makes from the market, and the church views providing the venue for the market as part of its community outreach.

"[Fields] sells through several markets in the area, we're one more outlet for him," Phillips said. "We provide our neighborhood, our community, access to fresh out of the fields produce, and it gives him some additional family income."

Fields was one of six original farmers that participated in the Seeds of Hope program when it was created in 1986. At the time he was driving his fruit and vegetables up to Columbia to take part, said Mary Campbell Cohn, the Market Coordinator for John Wesley.

The market also works with the WIC Farmers' Market Nutrition Program and accepts coupons to purchase fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs provided through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, which is a federally funded program, Cohn said.