The West Side Market's Impact
Upon perusing the West Side Market and looking at the information provided for each and every vendor that sells products at the market, almost all sell organic, locally grown or produced items, and/or are family operated businesses that are generations old or recently opened. Here are a few of the many that fit these categories:
- Rooted in Cleveland: began selling at the West Side Market in 2013. Sells all local produce, most of which was grown in Cleveland. All produce is free from petrochemicals.
- Olive Cleveland: family-owned company that focuses on providing olive oils, spices, nuts, and balsamic vinegars from small family farms across the Mediterranean.
- King Produce: sells only Ohio grown and tropical fruits.
- Ohio City Pasta: focuses on offering fresh pasta to local restaurants and markets. Produces their product in the Ohio City area itself.
- The Basketeria Organics: an Ohio-based company that provides an organic grocery option that is focused on accessibility and affordability. Established in 2000, they use localized sourcing during the summer that helps provide cost effective Ohio organic options through the fall.
The quote above is an excerpt from Mary Rose Oakar's prologue in To Market, to Market. Mary Rose Oakar is a former Democratic member of the House of Representatives from Ohio. She was the first female representative from Ohio to become a member of the House of Representatives (History, Art & Archives, United States House of Representatives). She is the youngest of five children in a family of Lebanese and Syrian ancestry. In her prologue in To Market, to Market she shares some of her experiences that she had with her father at the West Side Market. She talks about her childhood visits and how the vendors at the West Side Market always cared about her father as he was parenting five children during the Great Depression. She explained how "the merchants saved the best for us—a few more ounces of meat, a shiny apple, more salted butter, fresh eggs and raw vegetables" (Oakar, 6). This is the reason why she praises the West Side Market. She praises it because of the fact that her family was not set up to succeed, as her parents had five children to take care of during a time of great poverty, and they had to do it all while not being white. Yet, the vendors and the people who were involved with the West Side Market offered a place of solace and open doors no matter who you were. That is why I chose her as the first account of people's experiences at the West Side Market."The West Side Market satisfies our human needs for food...The products were beautiful and as colorful as the people...It provides human contact for friends, neighbors, merchants, and it fulfills the need for public servants to be at their best, to meet and listen to the grassroots people... No other place in the world is like it, and it belongs to all of us, no matter how rich, how poor, how young, how old, how white, how black. It signals optimism and hope—a living legacy for us all!" -Mary Rose Oakar
