Club’s program helps children learn about local produce, science

Fresh fruit and vegetables attracted dozens of children to the first event of the Cape Marketeers Club’s sixth season Saturday at the Cape Riverfront Market.

The club, a free educational program, welcomes children ages 5 to 12 to learn about locally grown food, nutrition and science. A total of 46 children participated Saturday.

Funded by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services through a Healthy Eating and Active Living grant, the club plans to meet two more times this season, on July 1 and Aug. 5.

Shortly after 8 a.m. Saturday, seasoned marketeers Alyssa Ward and Avery Alexander made their way into the Cape Riverfront Market with Avery’s mother, Rebekah Bogan-Alexander, who regularly has brought the two 9-year-old cousins to the club’s programs for three years.

Beneath the club’s centrally located tent, Audrey Giacomini, a master’s student in nutrition and exercise science at Southeast Missouri State University, greeted the cousins and presented them with the day’s activity.

Levi Riley, 5, colors a strawberry, one of the fruits and vegetables he ate in the past week, on Saturday at the Cape Marketeers Club booth at the Cape Riverfront Market.Fred Lynch

After coloring a sheet of fruits and vegetables, each child earned two wooden tokens. The tokens, worth $1 each, could go toward the purchase of any fruit or vegetable at the farmers market.

At the adjacent stand for Pearson’s Farm, Ward exchanged her first token for pickles, and Alexander traded his for tomatoes.

Tina Pearson of Pearson’s Farm added the tokens to her money box, which slowly filled with the wooden currency throughout the morning.

Pearson treated the marketeers like any other customers.

“I think it teaches them the value of money,” Pearson said. “I don’t know if they realize where the food is coming from; it’s just good food, and they get to buy it with their own money.”

With two tokens left, Ward and Alexander combined them for one final purchase.

In the back corner of the market, Emily Scifers of Laughing Stalk Farmstead was selling her locally grown organic carrots, green onions, basil, cabbage and other vegetables harvested the day before.

Looking to trade two tokens for one cabbage, Ward and Alexander came one dollar short of Scifers’ selling price.

Scifers, coordinator of the Cape Marketeers Club, gladly overlooked the difference.

“I think it’s awesome that they have that purchasing power with the tokens,” Scifers said. “I want them to buy as much as they can with the two dollars.”

bmatthews@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3652

Pertinent address:

35 S. Spanish St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.