SPORTS + OUTDOORS

City Hall is the center of Houston's government and is now home to the city's newest farmers market! City Hall Farmers Market, the newest in Urban Harvest's family of farmers markets, is being held every Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. NEW HOURS AS OF FEBRUARY 2, 2011:  11am to 2pm.

The City Hall Farmers Market has 40 vendors located along both sides of City Hall's lovely reflection pool, offering local produce and foodstuffs such as salad mixes, fresh fruit, cheese, yogurt, locally roasted coffee, and a variety of prepared and hot foods so downtown office workers and residents can enjoy lunch at City Hall around the Reflection Pool, at the adjacent Tranquility Park or at their desk.

The Market also features live music and a Chef's Corner, sponsored by My Table magazine, where chefs do live cooking demos using local products and give away samples. Musical acts and chefs change weekly.

"Urban Harvest is very pleased to expand our farmers market program and to partner with the City of Houston to create a new market in such a spectacular location in the heart of downtown Houston," says Urban Harvest Executive Director Mark Bowen. "The City Hall Farmers Market provides an excellent opportunity to promote the quality-of-life benefits of local produce and prepared foods for all Houstonians."

The City Hall Farmers Market is the third part of Mayor Annise Parker's local food initiative. In June 2010, the City's first vegetable container garden was built at the Bob Lanier Public Works Building, highlighting local produce and educating Houstonians about the ease of maintaining a vegetable garden in any type of environment. Employees on each floor of the building "adopted" individual containers and lovingly maintain them to create a wonderful touch of green within the cityscape. And, on September 30, Mayor Parker along with representatives from project partners, broke ground on the City Hall Victory Garden in Tranquility Park to promote nutrition, health, sustainability and self-reliance. The victory garden not only has health, environmental and economic benefits, but the vegetable gardens also create community.
 
"The Victory Garden will enhance staff work experiences, making Houston a better place to live and work," said Mayor Parker. Lastly, City Hall Farmers Market debuted on October 13, 2010.

"The City Hall Farmers Market is another important piece of the City's sustainable food initiative," said Laura Spanjian, the Mayor's Sustainability Director. "We want to demonstrate to Houstonians how easy and affordable it is to not only grow local fruits and vegetables, but to buy local as well."

Downtown dwellers and employees are encouraged to walk to the market. Those coming from outside of downtown can select metered street parking or garage parking at 400 Rusk.

For more information on the market or to apply to be a vendor, contact Urban Harvest at 713-880-5540 or visit UrbanHarvest.org.

ABOUT URBAN HARVEST: Urban Harvest promotes healthy communities, sound nutrition and respect for the environment by educating children and adults and facilitating harvest and habitat gardens. Urban Harvest Farmers Markets help educate the public about the benefits of eating local produce in season and provides the local agricultural community with a direct outlet for their products.