The Raleigh Farmers Market provides N.C. State students with an alternative to the normal college diet of ramen noodles and potato chips. 

Raleigh residents and N.C. State students are able to purchase fresh food at comparatively low prices. The State Farmers Market offers a wide variety of fruits and vegetables from Triangle farms. 

Ronnie Best, the manager of the Raleigh Farmers Market, said all N.C. State students should come to the market for one good reason. 

“Affordable food,” Best said. “If they’re going to cook at home, they can come here.”

The market attracts various people from all around, and therefore is self-supporting — it does not receive any appropriated money from the government.  

“The money we generate here, we spend here,” Best said. 

The market’s ability to generate revenue has allowed it to be one of the national leaders in wholesales.

“We’re probably one of the largest markets, wholesale produce market plus farmers market, south of Philadelphia [and] north of Atlanta,” Best said.

Best said if N.C. State students come during the right time of the year, some products are relatively inexpensive. 

“The way the prices work, basically, is if there is a lot of that product on the market, then the prices are cheap,” Best said.  

While inside the market, shoppers can sit down and grab some breakfast, lunch or dinner there at either of the two restaurants or grill located within the facility 

Monica Wood, the marketing specialist for the State Farmers Market, said that some of the best the market has to offer won’t be brought back to your kitchens. 

Wood said that the restaurants offer good deals and food for anybody shopping at the market.  

According to Wood, the N.C. Seafood Restaurant offers coupons online, which offer lower prices and incentive to come out. 

Additionally, she said the State Farmers Market Restaurant has daily lunch specials and serves breakfast all day. 

Wood said that these establishments offer something for college students living away from home—a good meal.

 “It’s good, home, country-cooking,” Wood said 

Though the market is known primarily for its edible goods, food is not the only product it offers.

“There’s a lot of neat gift items,” Wood said. 

Wood said that students could get their loved-ones a variety of different things, like specialty gift baskets, herbal soaps and lotions, or candles right at the market.

“They even have some collegiate items down there,” Wood said.

Wood said that one of the best things about the State Farmers Market is its proximity to N.C. State.

“We’re convenient, [students] can even ride their bike out,” Wood said. “I know a lot of them do.”

The market offers many events, like pumpkin-carving contests, that students can get involved in.  

According to Wood, many N.C. State students participated in the pumpkin contest last year. Cash prizes are awarded for the best decorated pumpkin.

The Farmers Market has been at its current location near Centennial Campus since 1991, but has moved from various locations in and around Raleigh since 1955.