Allie Bronston and Corey Sampson moved to the Harvey Park neighborhood 11 years ago and they’ve since fallen in love with the community, the quiet streets, and the proximity to green spaces. But one thing they’ve found frustrating is having to leave their southwest Denver neighborhood, which lacks its own grocery stores, to stock up on produce, meats, and pantry items. “Access to local food has been a struggle,” Bronston says.

But after attending a sustainability fair at Kunsmiller Creative Arts Academy near their home in 2016, the couple realized they could do something about it. “The idea kept resurfacing: Why are we driving so far?” Sampson says. “We mapped all the farmers’ markets in town and realized there was a gap.”

After several years of planning and countless phone calls and emails to vendors while working around their day jobs as educators, the couple’s plan is coming to fruition: Bronston and Sampson are launching the Harvey Park Farmers’ Market on May 2 in the Kunsmiller parking lot.

Harvey Park Farmers’ Market founders Corey Sampson and Allie Bronston. Photo courtesy of Harvey Park Farmers’ Market

The duo worked with Denver Public Schools to secure a permit, lease, and insurance, since the market will be on school property (individual vendors go through the City and County of Denver for their own permits). “After that, the hardest part was convincing farmers and producers to take a chance on us,” Bronston says. She and Sampson must have had a good pitch, though, because the market will open with more than 50 booths (14 of which will belong to farmers). Surprisingly, several growers come from within Harvey Park’s boundaries. One of them is Rebel Farm, an indoor hydroponic facility that supplies greens and herbs to some of the city’s top restaurants and culinary businesses, including Alma Fonda Fina, Bistro Vendôme, Leevers Locavore, and Cook Street School of Culinary Arts.

Other farms—some of which are little more than backyard gardens—bringing produce from nearby include Athmar Farms, Tiny Spoon Farms, Fox Fungi, Big Day Farm, the Fleischer Family Farm, and Harvey Park Flowers, a local grower that supplements its bouquets with blooms from neighborhood gardens. Further afield, fruit will come from Western Slope producers such as Ela Family Farms and Topp Fruits. Five Freedoms Dairy in Loveland, Skinny P Ranch in Strasburg, and Centennial Cuts in Colorado Springs will provide milk, eggs, and meat, respectively.

Flowers from Harvey Park Flowers. Photo courtesy of Harvey Park Farmers’ Market

“We want this to be a full grocery shopping experience,” Bronston says, noting that you’ll be able to stock up on cheese, tortillas, baked goods, fresh pasta, chocolate, kimchi, hummus, pickles, bottled sauces, and even olive oil, all from Colorado businesses. The market will accept SNAP and Double Up Food Bucks. And like other farmers’ markets in the city, this one will be a great place to just come by to enjoy breakfast, lunch, or a cup of coffee. Beverage vendors will include Latino-owned Migas Coffee, Vietnamese boba and milk tea specialist TeaHee, and Honduran bean roaster Hopelands Coffee, while a wide range of food purveyors cover multiple international options, such as Paborito (Filipino), Pupusas Familia (Salvadoran), Séllé Dibiterie (Senegalese barbecue), Taco Bella (Texas-style breakfast tacos), and Joy Hill (pizza).

The market’s location abuts Harvey Park, which comprises walking paths, baseball fields, handball and tennis courts, a rec center and swimming pool, and a gazebo that occasionally hosts live music. Bronston and Sampson hope that their new enterprise will add to the neighborhood’s sense of togetherness. “We want our neighbors to come and shop and still have that community experience afterward,” Sampson says.

The Harvey Park Farmers’ Market will be open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Saturday from May through October in the parking lot of Kunsmiller Creative Arts Academy at 2250 S. Quitman St.