FAQ

Fresh Stop Markets are volunteer, community-driven, farm-fresh food markets that pop up bi-weekly in eight Kentuckiana and one Perry County (Hazard) locations – at local churches, community centers, and businesses in fresh food insecure neighborhoods. Opening day is Tuesday, June 1st, 2021. You pick up every other week on the day of your market, starting in June, and ending in late October. This is a total of 11 times over 22 weeks. We will also sponsor a curbside strawberry pickup on Thursday, May 20th, 2021, and a Thanksgiving share pick up in November. Strawberries and Thanksgiving shares are only open to New Roots shareholders.

Fresh Stop Markets are where you will pick up your shares, plus, more: Pre-pandemic, and hopefully during the 2022 growing season, at every Market, a volunteer chef hosts a cooking demonstration, offering samples and recipes for the very same vegetables and fruits that shareholders bring home. However, in 2021, the atmosphere at the markets will still be FUN, family-reunion styled! We can still talk to each other across the distance and with our masks on. Our cooking demos have gone online to our Youtube channel, and our recipes are printed out and placed into your bag, and will be available on our blog.

A share is a bounty of fresh, local, all organic and chemical free, seasonal vegetables and a mix of local, organic and conventionally grown fruit purchased by Fresh Stop Market participants (shareholders). A share consists of nine varieties from some combination of our ten local farmers. A large portion of the share (usually 7 out of the 9 varieties) is grown by Rootbound Farm, an organically-certified farm in Oldham County, Kentucky, and the remaining vegetables are grown by Barr Farms (organically-certified) in Meade County, and Valley Spirit Farm (chemical-free, not certified) in Henry County. Pricing is based on an income scale. Families paying with SNAP Benefits in Kentucky and Indiana will pay $6, those with limited resources pay $12, higher income families pay $25, and those who would like to invest in the community pay $40 for our Food Justice Share. The true cost of getting the food to every shareholder is close to $40, which is the retail price if you were to source the vegetables at a farmers’ market. There is a small fee assigned for the credit/debit card transactions. With our Fresh Stop Market model, everyone gets the same seasonal, organic, chemical-free, delicious local produce no matter what they pay. Everyone pays two weeks in advance of the market, and sets up recurring payments. That means no risk for farmers, no waste or guessing, and wholesale prices for us. You will see the sliding scale when you go through the set up process on our new mobile app, during signup. We need you to load your payment information into the app, but we will not deduct the first share payment until mid-May, 2021. We need the funds in the bank so we can pay our farmers when they deliver our food. We are all proud that we can pay our farmers a fair price for their produce.

Go to the App Store (iPhone users) or Google Play Store (Android users) and download the “New Roots Fresh Stop Market” new mobile app. If you need help, you can go to this booklet to find a step by step instruction booklet. New Roots uses an automatic, recurring payment system. This way, you are only charged (in May) for one share up front, and then your card is debited the day after you pick up your share (for the next market). Call 502-509-6770 with questions! 75 percent of our total 650 shareholder families are families facing limited resources. We ask higher income families wanting to come in to please try to bring in a few families on SNAP Benefits or otherwise facing limited resources with you.

When you sign up, you can choose your market location (on the mobile app) to pick up your fresh fruits and vegetables. You can always change markets mid-season if you’d like.

New Roots has a very small budget and limited staff members. Fresh Stop Markets depend on volunteers to create, operate and maintain the markets. These are the community’s markets. Shareholders are encouraged to volunteer during and after the growing season. Without volunteers we wouldn’t be able to operate, and we wouldn’t have a grassroots movement to be proud of. You can to volunteer to be an online veggie cheerleader, deliver shares to a neighbor, pack share bags, check in your fellow shareholders, and/or to set up and break down the markets. Sign up here. Kids are welcome! We use COVID-19 safe practices.

Donations cover operational costs. Also, 75 percent of our shareholders pay the lower end of the sliding scale, and we need to raise funds to make up the difference between what shareholders pay and what we have to pay our farmers.

When communities fail to support our local farmers, we end up with food from large, industrial, profit-driven farms where practices are questionable. Keeping small farms in business supports the local economy, ensures farm workers are treated right, and offers locals a chance to get affordable, organic and chemical-free food.

You can opt out up to three times, however due to the wait list and high demands, we would love it if you can please pay for and pick up your share all 11 times over our 22 week growing season. This also helps our farmers have a consistent income and picking schedule. If you are out of town, please try to get one of your family members to pick up for you. offer. You can cancel your share at any point in the season. 

No, we are going fully vegan for the 2022 season and are no longer selling eggs. We want to focus on our amazing organic vegetables!

We will have a swap table when you pick up, but swaps are limited. Our farmers need to grow a variety of vegetables to grow organically, and our bodies need a variety as well, to stay healthy. Please be patient with us and our farmers as we trying to do the best we can while eating organically, and in season.

We have created an APP FAQ link with visuals and instructions to help anyone having trouble figuring out the App. It includes How To: Modify your Egg Order, Skip a Market, Change your Market, and lastly if necessary Cancel your Share. We really hope you do not want to cancel and that you absolutely love your shares but hopefully this tutorial will be useful for you.