POP Club gives kids a chance to engage with local producers and growers within Essex County.
By Ellie Hoffman | Local Food Educator
The Power of Produce Club, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Essex County’s flagship youth program, offers a hands-on opportunity for free activities and a chance to engage with local produce. The program has wrapped up another successful year, expanding its number of locations, participants, and types of featured produce. In total, educators logged 600+ interactions with youth, a 20% increase from the 2024 season.
Essex County is home to nine summer farmers’ markets, and POP Club was proud to make an appearance at all of them. Elizabethtown, Lake Placid, and Saranac Lake Farmers’ Markets all welcomed POP Club back for another consecutive year, while markets that hosted POP Club for the first time included Schroon Lake, Willsboro, Crown Point, Ticonderoga, Keene Valley, and Port Henry. At all markets, POP Club’s mission was to spread excitement for farm fresh produce and expand kids’ knowledge of and access to locally grown foods.
Each week, the POP Club table featured ways to learn about farms and food through hands-on activities, scavenger hunts, and veggie-themed jokes and trivia. After completing an activity, the participating kids received $5 to purchase any local produce item of their choice from a vendor at the market that day.
“My five year old son was thrilled to receive a $5 bill after he completed the activity. It was a nice surprise! He enjoyed buying peaches from a local farm,” said one Schroon Lake Farmers’ Market attendee.
Thanks to produce donated from local growers such as Northern Orchard and Harvest Hill Farm, POP Club was also able to pilot new activities such as sculpting apple critters and carving zucchini boats. The latter proved attractive not just to kids, but to market shoppers of all ages, as kids, parents, and grandparents stopped to try their hands at creating a seaworthy squash. Many adults also came over to hear from CCE Essex’s Master Gardener Volunteers, who teamed up with POP Club on several occasions to give up-to-date and on-the-spot horticulture advice to budding gardeners.
Tourists and locals alike remarked on the influence that POP Club had on their experience at the market, with one grandparent noting that “[the kids] were so proud of their Farmers Market purchases…the activities at the market were among their favorite things from [our time in Lake Placid].” POP Club’s role in establishing connections between families and farmers was also mentioned.
“[POP Club] always gives my kids a fun activity that gets them to directly interact with merchants at the farmers market,” said one attendee. Another agreed, saying that “[POP Club scavenger hunts] made them go over to vendors they might not have otherwise.” And with the $5 they received from POP Club activities, kids were empowered to participate in the local food network by buying directly from the market vendors.
“We love seeing kids use their POP money to buy blueberries from us. Often, they walk over with their $5 bills in their hands and make the purchase mostly on their own. POP is not only promoting healthy foods, but also life skills for our young people: the future generation of consumers,” said Laura Cook from The Cook Farm
Connecting families to food and farmers is ultimately what POP Club is all about, and we’re proud to work with so many dedicated growers, producers, and community members to make that happen. We’ll be back in 2026 with fresh ideas and ingredients; stay tuned for a schedule in the spring!
For more information on POP Club, and the Farm to School program, please contact Ellie Hoffman at emh257@cornell.edu or 518-962-4810 ext. 405.
Photographs taken by Ellie Hoffman.
