In Old Greenwich, summer has a weekly vocabulary: shishito peppers, homegrown tomatoes, bouquets, corn, pesto, hummus, popsicles. It arrives in bike baskets and stroller cupholders, in the sticky hands of children who understand Wednesday as a day for something special. For 15 years, the Old Greenwich Farmers Market has been more than tents in a church parking lot at 38 West End Avenue. It has been one of those repeatable rituals by which a place teaches its residents how to belong.
Now, just as the 2026 season should be finding its rhythm, that ritual has become a civic puzzle. Living Hope Community Church, the market’s longtime host, has not renewed the market’s use of its property. According to a petition started by Old Greenwich resident Colleen M. Proppé, the pastor told her by phone that “neighbors complained to us about noise and parking issues.”
The market’s most immediate possible next stop appears to be St. Catherine’s Church at 11 Riverside Avenue. The town’s pending applications page lists PLPZ202600252 for that address as “Farmers Market – tents exceeding 14 days combined,” and recent local reporting says the proposal would operate Wednesdays from 1 to 5 p.m., June through November, while approval remains under review.
For some residents, Riverside is better than no market. For others, it changes the meaning of the market itself. A farmers market is not only a place to buy lettuce. It is also the route to the lettuce: the flat ride from home, the slow walk past familiar storefronts, the small pleasure of doing an errand without buckling everyone into a car.
That is the point Proppé’s petition has tried to make, and it has found an audience. As of June 25, the Change.org page showed 665 verified signatures and a June 24 update describing the loss in plainly communal terms: “What we lost wasn’t just a Farmer’s Market, but a Summer and Fall traditional place for all ages to gather.”
The petition remembers the market as an outdoor classroom, with children learning about sustainability, composting and organic gardening; the Garden Club sometimes at a table; local musicians playing acoustic music; and vendors offering Connecticut-grown food that families built into the week. It also raises a practical concern: moving the market uphill and out of Old Greenwich could turn a walkable habit into another car trip.
Possible alternatives have emerged, though none appears simple. Proppé has suggested the new Civic Center and the West End extension lot near Old Greenwich School’s ballfield and adjacent CVS spaces. A June 18 petition update said organizer Dana Evans Lee had explored the Civic Center, commuter lots near the school, other church properties, the library and commercial sites, but that each presented complications involving school use, construction, traffic, parking commitments or other constraints.
Town officials have acknowledged the problem. Minutes from a June Board of Selectmen meeting say Selectwoman Lauren Rabin discussed efforts to relocate the market near her office but noted liability concerns, and First Selectman Fred Camillo added that the town was working hard to find a new location.
There is, of course, another neighbor in this story: Living Hope. The June 24 update itself notes, “We should be grateful the Living Hope Church hosted us for as long as they did.” That gratitude is meaningful. So does the grief of losing a place that, for many families, made Old Greenwich feel more like itself.
The question before town leaders and residents is modest enough to fit into four hours on a Wednesday afternoon, and large enough to reveal what kind of place Old Greenwich wants to be. Not every beloved habit can remain exactly where it began. But when a market becomes a meeting place, losing it without a walkable successor is not merely a scheduling problem. It is a test of whether belonging, once grown, can be replanted close enough for children to reach by bike.
