WESTFIELD – After six years under its current leadership, the Westfield Farmers Market will have a new leadership team ahead of the 2021 season.

Debbie Randzio, the former manager at the Westfield Farmers Market said she began thinking about moving on from the market in 2019.

“I was kind of putting feelers out to see if anybody was interested in stepping up to do it and had no takers. When COVID hit I knew it was the wrong time to back out, I did not want the market to die. We needed to get new leadership in place, and it was important to keep the market open,” she said.

She added that she and her husband were both retired and had to put some of their retirement plans on hold.

“My husband and I are both retired, and we do quite a bit of international traveling and my children live away and require travel to go visit them. There were a lot of things getting put on the back shelf for the sake of the market and we’re not getting any younger and it’s time for us to do some of the things that we thought we were going to do in our retirement,” she said.

Some of her favorite memories from the market include children having fun and enjoying the music and one elderly customer that would come every week.

“A woman named Iris used to come over from Arbors with her walker and she would just go one vendor to the next and she would come and dance. It was just wonderful to see that kind of pleasure people got from just being there, I loved it,” she said.

While she is leaving the market behind, Randzio said she hopes more farmers come and set up stalls at the market.

“We would like to have more farms; at heart we are a farmer’s market, and our mission is to support local agriculture. I’d also like to see more diversity in the foods sold at the market, if we get a variety of food, we’ll have a variety of customers,” she said.

New manager Mary Kadomoto said she had been volunteering at the market for two years before stepping into her new role when the market’s 2020 season ended.

“I have been volunteering for the last two years. I think the market is really good for the city and it is something I feel is really important to the community. I retired about five years ago and I’ve been looking for a volunteer opportunity and this one came up, it just worked out really well,” she said.

Throughout the transition process, Kadomoto said Randzio and her former co-manager have helped make it smoother.

“She had a co-manager named Peter Langmore and they both have met with me a few times. They have been helpful in not throwing it over the fence, we’ve been doing a handshake, so to speak, in the month since the market closed and they have great documentation and they have built the market up to be something really great. It’s been a really good experience with them, they’re very kind,” she said.

One of her goals for the 2021 season is to open earlier than in 2020 but under similar social distancing guidelines.

“I want to open the market earlier than we did last year, we had quite a delay and we didn’t open until the end of July. We like to target the Thursday after Memorial Day. We’ll probably be opening under the same health and safety protocols,” Kadomoto said.

She added that she also wants to find more food vendors for next year.

“I’m really trying to get out there and find more food vendors. We have a mix of food and crafts which most markets have, but our focus is on feeding people so I’d like to see more farmers and food producers,” Kadomoto said.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were only 11 vendors as opposed to the typical 25 to 30.

While having a manager is important, Kadomoto said nobody is more important to the market than the volunteers.

“It’s not one or two people managing the market. There’s a core group of volunteers who really assist, and all of those people so far have responded that they are going to come back and help with the market. We had to have volunteers at the market every Thursday because of COVID restrictions and we had a comprehensive opening plan, and all the volunteers were great in managing the process,” she said.

The Westfield Farmers Market will return next spring at the Episcopal Church of the Atonement.