Austin Harvest Continues Its Mission With Permanent Market

Austin Harvest recently celebrated the opening of its permanent brick-and-mortar year-round market, which is located at 423 N. Laramie Ave. PHOTO PROVIDED BY BY THE HAND CLUB FOR KIDS.
Austin Harvest recently celebrated the opening of its permanent brick-and-mortar year-round market, which is located at 423 N. Laramie Ave. PHOTO PROVIDED BY BY THE HAND CLUB FOR KIDS.

Austin Harvest Continues Its Mission With Permanent Market

By Tia Carol Jones

Residents in Austin have a permanent place to buy fresh produce. The Austin Harvest hosted a ribbon cutting for its permanent location at 423 N. Laramie Ave.

The Austin Harvest, a program of By The Hand Club for Kids, is a youth-led produce market. It began in 2020 as a pop-up produce market with the goal to provide fresh produce to a community that is recognized as a food desert. While the plan was to only operate Austin Harvest as a pop-up for one season, it continued to host pop-up events years later.

The permanent location will provide year-round access to flowers and fresh produce to Austin residents, while teaching the young people who lead the market entrepreneurship skills.

Laquinton Wooten and Neveah Hester are two of Austin Harvest’s youth entrepreneurs. The students were responsible for coming up with the name of the market, its manifesto, the plans, designs and layout of the market, as well as the concept and name of the mural. Rodney Williams is the Director of Entrepreneurship and Economic Development for By The Hand Club For Kids. Williams said that Austin Harvest has been working toward having a brick-and-mortar location for the last four years.

“We’ve been grateful to have the opportunity to provide such an awesome thing for our community. Knowing that we can do it year-round, at another level of excellence, it just feels really good,” Williams said.

Williams has lived in Austin his whole life. He is glad that Austin Harvest is able to help change the narrative and perception of the community. He said having Austin Harvest in the community meant a lot to its residents. He added that it being in the community means that someone thought enough of the community to invest in a place where the young people can work and learn and the community can have a place that was really needed.

“To know that we have been part of the change … we are grateful to be that change that we want to see in our community,” Williams said.

Wooten said entrepreneurship was a career path he always wanted to pursue. Having the experience of working at Austin Harvest has meant a lot to him. He said what he has learned during his time at Austin Harvest is something he will carry with him for the rest of his life. As a lifelong resident of Austin, it has been good for him to see a positive change in the community and to be a part of that change.

Through his work with Austin Harvest, Wooten has learned how to run and manage a business, as well as the importance of networking and marketing. Being able to work with the team to complete the project was the most satisfying for him.

Hester said along with the educational part of working at Austin Harvest and learning how to be an entrepreneur, she has also enjoyed the community building aspect of the work. As a people person, she likes getting to know new people and seeing the same people and getting to know them on a deeper level. Hester has seen new customers and regulars and likes being able to talk to them and hear their stories. It helps her build a personal relationship with the customers and ensures the customers have a positive experience at the market.

Through her work with Austin Harvest, Hester has learned about customer service and the blueprint of creating a business, from naming the business to the uniforms the staff will wear. Hester was one of the first 10 students to work at Austin Harvest.

“It was a 12-week program, it started under a tent and just to see the constant demand of people wanting it back, now we have an amazing functional building to stay here permanently, it definitely has the biggest impact and I cannot wait to see what else we can do to constantly improve,” Hester said.

For Williams, watching the students be stretched in their ability to dream and watching it materialize before their eyes was the most satisfying part of the process. To see the project go from blueprint, to shovels in the ground to the completion, was something amazing for Williams to see.

Williams said that while Austin is considered a food desert today, he hopes that in 10 years it will not have that same designation because of the work Austin Harvest is doing providing produce and creating a new generation of entrepreneurs.

“To see what we were able to do in just a couple of years, it is amazing how one small building has impacted a community, I can only imagine what is going to happen when they materialize their own individual dreams and what they desire to do as entrepreneurs in the years to come,” Williams said.

To learn more about the Austin Harvest, visit bythehand.org/austinharvest.


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