From brew paths to coffee crawls, Stark County residents have lots of opportunities to explore the local offerings of the region this summer.

Earlier this month, the Stark County Health Department launched one more, encouraging residents to visit all of the area farmers markets. 

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The Stark Marketeers passport started this summer through the department’s Creating Healthy Communities grant and the Live Well Stark County initiative. Abigail Jenkins, a health educator with the department, came up with the idea after seeing the success of passports for breweries in Akron.  

“I thought getting people to different farmers markets would be a great idea,” Jenkins said. “And it started with just an idea that I threw out and within two months, we were able to make it an interactive website.” 

To participate in the program, shoppers scan a QR code at each farmers market or log their market visits on the Stark Marketeers website at https://stark-marketeers-starkcohealthoh.hub.arcgis.com/. Shoppers will be asked to respond to a survey about their visit to the farmers market, and anonymized data from those surveys is displayed on the Marketeers website. 

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Participants who visit all four markets may receive a prize, such as a water bottle, measuring spoons or lunch containers from Live Well.  

“We'll use that to help propel the program next year and make it even better,” Jenkins said. 

There’s a second aim to the program as well, Jenkins said. When the summer is over and most of the farmers markets close for the season, her team plans to send out a brief to those who participated in the passport program to get more feedback about how farmers markets can address health in their communities.  

Filling out the final survey enters respondents in a drawing for one of two grand prizes centered on the themes of healthy eating and active living. 

“A lot of times we think we might know what the community wants, but what we actually might implement isn't actually what they're going to use, so we’re trying to get them stuff that they're going to actually use,” Jenkins said. “The Marketeers is a great program, I think because it lets people know about what farmers markets are in Stark County and if they can get to them and if they can't, then how can we help them get resources to get there.” 

Sam Zern can be reached at szern@cantonrep.com or 330-580-8322. You can also find her on Twitter at @sam_zern.