Frankie’s Outdoor Market Opens

by Shelby Diehl

On Saturday, August 21, Northside Food Co-Op celebrated the grand opening of Frankie’s Outdoor Market. Frankie’s Outdoor Market provides local farmers and vendors a space to sell fresh produce, meats, eggs and seafood as well as crafts, accessories and bath and body products.

“The Frankie’s Outdoor Market is designed to attract attention to the pilot store which is ultimately the grocery store we are trying to establish here in the Northside. It’s all designed to fight food insecurity,” said Alexander Brown, an intern with Northside Food Co-Op.

The market is located in a USDA-recognized food desert, an area where people have limited access to a variety of healthful foods.

“The objective of today and every week forward is to bring people and tell them we’re here to end this food desert. We want to eradicate the fact that people aren’t eating on a regular basis and that they can’t afford regular food or healthy food because there’s nowhere to get it, so we’re trying to put that to an end,” Brown concluded.

You can find Frankie’s Outdoor Market every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the grassy lot behind 1019 Princess Street in Wilmington.

Shelby Diehl is a junior at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington studying Environmental Science with the Concentration in Conservation and Creative Writing with a Certificate in Publishing. She plans to pursue a career in environmental writing that will allow her to advocate for environmental causes worldwide.