New Season, But Same Problems For Liberty Street Market

Winston-Salem's Liberty Street Market is nearing its first anniversary, and city officials are hoping the second year won't be as rough as the first.

The market opened with great fanfare last October as a means to bring healthy food to a community without access to neighborhood grocery stores. But vendors and customers have been scarce. And this summer the firm managing the market pulled out of its contract without explanation. The city is now running the market.

Evan Raleigh is an assistant city manager. He says Winston-Salem officials are trying to figure out what's plaguing the market.

“We're assessing that now – we've been doing that over the last couple of weeks and just haven't been able to pinpoint anything – I just don't think we've been in the position of operating it long enough to conclusively determine. But it's something we're actively investigating.”

In the meantime, the original goal remains the same.

“If we're speaking specifically about the need for greater access to healthy food, the evidence certainly bears out that there's a need for that in that particular area.”

The city is working with Second Harvest Food Bank to distribute food at the market on Thursdays. Raleigh says in addition to being a food market the space would work just as well for events like church group gatherings. But those plans are still being worked out.

Raleigh says the city will likely look for another firm to manage the market, but there's no timetable for when that will happen.