What is Black Seed Farmers Market?

Black Seed Farmers Market will connect community members of diverse backgrounds with each other, as well as with local farmers, some of whom are recent immigrants and/or refugees in order to foster wellness, belonging, and a supportive local economy around healthy food.

As a program of MCL, it will be bringing not only local organic produce to Worcester Islamic Center (one of our local masjids) on Sundays, but local organic halal meat as well. There are few farmers that provide local organic halal meat, so people’s access to these farmers and their products is scarce to none. Our farmers market serves to bridge that gap starting this July! We hope that by bridging the gap between farmers, masjidgoers, refugees, immigrants, senior citizens, churchgoers, and the community at large, we will be fostering a community of empowered and educated citizens who will be able to make better decisions for their wellness and local economy.

Our produce will be supplied from local farms including from farms run by refugees from Nepal, Iraq, and multiple African states, so as to support their livelihood.

We are striving to make this market a success as a community program, but also as a social entrepreneurship endeavor for MCL. We are confident that we will be able to make Black Seed Farmers Market financially sustainable, but we need your help to get us started!

Our Needs

At the moment we have just $6000, granted to us from the The Garden Hill Fund of The Mountain School Alumni Initiative. This $6000 is being used to pay a market manager, on whom at the moment, all of the responsibility lies, and to pay for supplies. This is a huge undertaking for just one person and few board members and volunteers.

Our ultimate goal is to raise $12000 from this campaign as this will enable us to pay for:

• 1 part time market coordinator 
• 2 part time youth
• Remaining supplies
• Whole livestock meat costs

$12000, with your support, will allow our market manager to focus on running the market successfully, while:

• the coordinator can focus on inventory & pick up logistics and coordinating with farmers
• and the youth can support the manager in customer service, set up, take down, stocking, inventory, and data entry.

So how can you help us to foster a connected, empowered, and healthier community?

$5 will buy us 1 bushel basket so we can display, store, and transport produce

$30 will buy us 1 First Aid kit in case of an emergency

$60 will buy us 1 folding table

$125 will buy us 1 cash register

$150 will buy us 1 scale to weight produce and meat

$250 will buy us 1 freezer/refrigerated cooler to keep our produce and meat fresh!

$300 will buy us 1 canopy tent with weights

$1600 will enable us to employ 1 part time youth worker for the season

$2000 will buy us our signage, banners, flyers, advertisements, and website

$4000 will enable us to employ a part time market coordinator for the season

Please share our campaign with your friends via Facebook, Twitter, any other social media platforms you use!

Who is MCL?

Our Vision is a community in which all members are receiving necessary support, have a sense of belonging, and have achieved or are empowered to achieve physical, mental, and social wellness. One of the ways we seek to do this is through community building programs, such as Black Seed Farmers Market, aimed at fostering wellness within community members’ lives.

You may have come across news about us on our Facebook page in the past year or even followed the campaign that MCL Mental Health ran over the winter, 99 Names of Allah Countdown to Spring. Now we're asking for your support for Black Seed Farmers Market so that we can further our mission of fostering community wellness!

Are you a believer?

You're not the only one! The Regional Environmental Council, Worcester's leading environmental and food justice organization, is supportive of our market too! We've also received monetary support from The Garden Hill Fund of The Mountain School but we need help from people like you, as well, in order to have enough funds to kick start this initiative to success!

"...MCL’s new Black Seed Market... is planning to be a model of collaboration and has from the very start reached out to establish mutually beneficial systems of operation.... We at REC have offered to support MCL with storage and equipment support for Black Seed Market as well as systems support. The REC’s mission is to support community empowerment and leadership to create community health. In support of MCL to run the Black Seed Market, the REC is given a great opportunity to further this mission."

"The Garden Hill Fund of The Mountain School (TMS) supports the good work of TMS graduates as they bring to life the mission of the school—to reach beyond the self and focus on the common good—in their own communities and the larger world. The Fall 2015 alumni and student Garden Hill Fund committees were drawn to the Black Seed Farmers Market project because it pertained directly to Mountain School values, food access, and serving and connecting various communities that have been underserved. Shahbaz Soofi, an alumnus of TMS, demonstrated great initiative starting up the market, with real potential to impact a community where he has history. We are pleased to have supported the project, and we wish Shahbaz and the Black Seed Farmers Market all the best on their opening this summer!"

Why is Black Seed Farmers Market's success important?

• Recent immigrants & refugees, some of whom will sell their produce at the market; others who need access to healthy and culturally relevant food purchasing options!
• Masjidgoers, Churchgoers, & people of all faiths and backgrounds in the Worcester community
• Senior citizens

Our Farms

There are many farmers and goods producers whose products we will be carrying. Here's a preview of where just some of our produce, meat, and goods will be sourced from and with the help of:

Oakdale Farms

Forty Acres Farm

Sweet Pumpkins Farm (goats milk soaps, skincare, and dairy!) 

El Panal Honey

New Lands Farm

Please share our campaign with your friends via Facebook, Twitter, any other social media platforms you use!