On every Wednesday of the main market season, the Carrboro Farmers’ Market hosts Market Bunch, a space sponsored by the Orange County Farm Bureau for children in the community to learn about local food systems.
Originally started in 2015, Market Bunch connects local families with farmers, teaching children the importance of locally sourced produce and healthy eating.
The event’s activities target children up to the age of 11, with the largest age group being children ages 3 to 5.
At Market Bunch, kids participate in activities including educational games, tasting new fruits and vegetables and activities that encourage them to interact with local farmers, food and agriculture. Local chefs often visit the market, preparing kid-friendly dishes using seasonal ingredients.
September events featured a Hispanic Heritage Month theme, with the children doing a scavenger hunt of fruits and vegetables named in Spanish, and a craft activity of making their own papel picado, a traditional Mexican folk art that involves the cutting out of patterns and images to create banners and festive decorations.
Sophie Lowry, assistant manager of the Carrboro Farmers’ Market, said the goal of Market Bunch is to get children excited about eating local produce and more knowledgeable about what eating local food looks like.
Lowry said the most rewarding parts of her job are hearing returning children talk about seasonal fruits and vegetables out of their own volition and seeing their growing engagement with the program.
“That’s also the beauty of it, is that every week there are a few families that are new, but for the most part it’s the same families that come back week to week, and working here, you get to know the kids,” Lowry said. “So it’s not only community between farmers and families and market staff and families, but also between the families themselves coming together.”
Market Bunch allows children to feel positively about healthy eating, creating a fun environment for them to branch out of their comfort zones, Lowry said.
“We try to have samples pretty regularly and something that can make it a little bit more fun and easy for kids to try things is when you make it a contest between two things,” Lowry said.
According to the Market Bunch 2025 impact report, 72 percent of surveyed parents on average noticed increased interest in fruits and vegetables from their children.
Market manager Chloé Sherer said the Market Bunch children activities allow families to get more involved in the farmers market while collaborating with UNC-affiliated groups, such as CompostMates and other local nonprofits.
Activities frequently focus on trying new, seasonal foods that local farmers sell, Sherer said.
“We also frequently do scavenger hunts so that they can learn more about what is in season, and give them an opportunity to ask the farmer questions,” she said.
Thomas, a 6-year-old regular at Market Bunch, said his favorite part of the weekly events are the Bunch Bucks — one of the prizes kids can receive.
“That is a $5 coupon that they can use on fruits and vegetables with any of our farmers,” Sherer said.
According to their 2025 impact report, $2,670 Bunch Bucks were spent on fruits and veggies at the Carrboro Farmers’ Market.
“So that’s definitely a big part of it, is by deepening familiarity with these foods and seeing other kids eating things that might be a little more scary to a young kid,” Lowry said.
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Dining and Cooking