Reconnect, a student organization at Southeastern, held their first farmer’s market on Monday inside the Student Union Mall, bringing local farmers to students.

“Reconnect is the environmental group on campus,” said Bonnie May, a sociology graduate student and president of Reconnect. “We started working on the Real Food Challenge, which is a nation-wide campaign where universities try to get more local, sustainable produce on their campus.”

Indian Springs Farmers Association, Inc. from Petal, Miss., Pointe Coupe Minority Cooperation from Avoyelles Parish, Trey Yuen, Cate Street Seafood and Campus Dining were all vendors at the Reconnect Farmer’s Market on Monday.

According to May, David Burley, an environmental sciences and sociology professor, was the driving force behind the farmer’s market.

“He already knew the farmers because he is already big into sustainable produce and agriculture,” said May.

Reconnect also had a booth offering a survey for students, faculty and community members to gauge the interest the school and community had in Southeastern sponsoring more farmer’s markets.  

Timothy McCarty, graduate student in the department of sociology, expressed his belief that the university should give back to the community.

“I believe this is important for Southeastern as a community university to give back the local economy and to local farmers,” said McCarty. “We pride ourselves on being community based, being a local university and this is one way that the university can give back by giving these farmers direct contracts with the university to get local produce on campus.”

The students browsing the tables in the union echoed McCarty’s enthusiasm about the possibility of getting fresh, local produce on campus.

“I love it!” said Felice Strange, a freshman majoring in special education. “They should have more of these, I would come to every one.”

Reconnect is an environmental group on campus that promotes environmental awareness and a healthy lifestyle. The group meets every other Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. in Java City. Their next meeting is Nov. 2, 2011.