THOMASVILLE — A thousand people purchased produce at a generations-old Thomasville farmers market business one day a week ago.

That is the number of people Cindy Lewis said shopped at Lewis Produce on Saturday, June 6.

Because of state budget restraints resulting from COVID-19-related economic ills, the Thomasville famers market is on the hatchet list with several other Georgia farmers markets.

Thomasville City Council members, Thomas County commissioners, District 173 state Rep. Darlene Taylor, (R-Thomasville), District 175 state Rep. John LaHood (R-Valdosta) and other officials toured the farmers market Thursday.

Lewis and her husband, Tony Lewis, own the produce business Tony Lewis’ grandfather started more than seven decades ago.

Cindy Lewis said the family produce business purchases produce from a number of small growers, pointing out a small grower at the business.

Lewis said Lewis Produce serves surrounding counties and north Florida. Lewis Produce has faithful customers from Miami, Florida, she added.

Six businesses would close with the farmers market’s demise, and small growers would have nowhere to sell their produce, Lewis told officials.

Randall Moore, who has been in the wholesale produce business at the farmer markets since 1984, said that on Wednesday, every slot was filled with trucks waiting to be loaded with produce to be transported throughout the United states and into Canada.

Moore buys produce from farmers in surrounding counties and north Florida.

He said the farmers market is “a big thing,” historical and serves a large area.

The market is not losing money, said Thomasville City Council member David Hufstetler, who has researched market profit figures. The message “has been driven home times 10,” he said.

Shelley Zorn, Thomasville Payroll Development Authority executive director, said agriculture is a $73 billion Georgia industry. The Thomasville farmers market is an example of agriculture’s importance to the area, she said.

Taylor is optimistic the farmers market will remain open. 

“We need to stay on top of it,” she said.

Georgians are spending again, resulting in state revenue increasing, she said. The increase will give “a little room” to help save the local farmers market, she said.

Community involvement, such as the Thursday gathering of officials, is crucial in saving the market, Taylor said.

Closing farmers markets is a budget proposal, not a definite budget cut, she said.

“This is vital to this community. It must be saved,” Taylor said. 

Senior reporter Patti Dozier can be reached at (229) 226-2400, ext. 1820