The Victoria County Commissioners Court proclaimed the week of August 2025 as National Farmers Market Week on Aug. 4 and received an update from the Victoria Farmers Market manager on vendor growth and programs to expand access to fresh food.

Meredith Byrd, market manager for the Victoria Farmers Market and an employee of the Food Bank of the Golden Crescent, told the court the market meets year-round twice weekly at the Patty Dodson Public Health Center and has grown from six vendors in 2017 to more than 30 on Saturdays this year, supporting about 80 local farms and small businesses within roughly a 100-mile radius.

Byrd said the market has accepted SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) for nearly two years and that transactions have totaled about $10,000 in that period. She described a new partnership with the Sustainable Food Center to provide Double Up Food Bucks: the program doubles a SNAP customer’s purchase up to $30 in fresh fruits and vegetables per market visit, with the matching funds usable in later weeks if customers do not use them immediately.

The court read and approved a proclamation noting the market’s 35-plus year history and the Food Bank of the Golden Crescent’s management of the market for nine years. The court presented the proclamation to Byrd and posed for photos to promote Farmers Market Week.

The proclamation was approved by voice vote; the transcript records the motion, a second and a successful voice vote but does not record individual roll-call votes.