Earlier this October the Coppell Farmers Market hosted it’s 11th farm-to-table fundraising dinner. The event honors the face and taste of local food, and features ingredients from Coppell Farmers Market vendors, prepared by seasoned chefs and local food stakeholders. Farmers Market committee members felt a strong sense of community and pride in sharing the celebration of local food with vendors, volunteers, and guests.
Ticket sale proceeds will support the use of Texas Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Lone Star Cards at the market. SNAP is designed to help low-income families purchase nutritional food. CFM grants each SNAP user an additional $10 per visit to purchase produce and meat at the market. Additional funds raised are also used for CFM marketing campaigns.
Chef Corey Lyons Kuluntu Bakery, Stephanie
Leichtle-ChalklenBe Spiced, Sapna Punjabi-Gupta
Our market was so honored by the talents that committed to preparing food for our market’s benefit. For the first time ever, farmers market vendors and customers prepared food alongside professional chefs. Each of their unique skills contributed to a wonderfully diverse experience for dinner guests.
Chefs Robby and Victoria Hooker are beloved vendors at our market (Two Chefs Chips & Salsa) who were instrumental in founding our market’s dinner tradition and continue to be the heartbeat for the event. The Two Chefs have infected their network of talented professional chefs with enthusiasm for creating with ingredients from and support for our market. Contributing chefs include Rafael Espinal, James Knifong, John Perek, and Corey Lyons.
Guests had opportunities to greet the faces of cooks who not only prepared food for the event but also grow, raise, bake and make the ingredients in their dishes. Vendors who prepared food include Empa Mundo’s father-daughter duo, Raul and Cindy Gordon, Livestock First Ranch owner Taylor Cooper and wife Jane Cooper, Wackym’s Kitchen owner Paul Wackym, Rehoboth Ranch owners Hillary and Mark Hutchins, Be Spiced owner Sapna Punjabi-Gupta and her husband, mother and children, Joe the Baker owner Chef Joe Baker, Hazel’s Kitchen’s mother-daughter duo, Megan Lozano and Michelle Holmes, John Doumas owner of Pop Star, Amy Turner owner of Sweet Legacies Chocolates, and owners of Soco Ginger Beer, Dave and Angel Weaver.
Chef Rafael Espinal Chef Victoria Hooker Chef Ashley Douglas, Diva Greenz
Market customers with creative culinary businesses who prepared food for the event include Chef Ashley Douglas owner of Diva Greenz, Coppell-based food bloggers (Cooking with Wine) Angela Persicke and Mark Perlioni, Kuluntu Bakery owner Stephanie Leichtle-Chalklen , and Wild Roots Nutrition owner Allie Wayman.
More photos from the event can be seen here.
A great number of vendors provided ingredients for the dinner. Those include: Livestock First Ranch, Rehoboth Ranch, Tree Folk Farm, Jersey Girls Dairy, Embry Family Farm, Elliott Grows, D-Bar Farm, Weathertop Farm, Wow U-Pick Farm, Nature’s Nectar, Sundance Garden, Biscuit Head, Soco Ginger Beer, Nate’s Raw Harvest, Sweet Legacies, Aunt Sue’s Barn, T-Rex Pickles, Brother’s Products, Village Bakery, Pop Star, Joe the Baker, Wackym’s Kitchen, and Lucido’s Pasta.
Compost Haste provided compost pickup services for the event. All dinnerware and food wastes were compostable.
Libations were as follows: Turning Point Brewery provided craft beer, Edible DFW Magiazine connected our market with Tito’s Vodka who donated for the signature cocktail, and wine was provided by Blue Ostrich Winery.
Coordinating the event from the market committee were Karen Gillham and Amanda Novak, and city liaisons Marissa Olivas and Molly Bujanda, assisted by many other CFM committee members. Special thanks to committee members Betsy Dwight and Peggy Rosson, who helped organize volunteers. Students from Coppell high schools, plus many other Coppell Community Garden and Farmers Market, and other volunteers assisted through the afternoon and evening. Coppell Parks Department staff hung lights and setup tables and chairs for the event. This is truly a grassroots community effort.
The dinner was one of several culinary experiences planned by the Coppell FM this season. Keep an eye out for regularly scheduled cooking demonstrations, offered at no charge to help customers with cooking what they purchase at the farmers market.