November 14, 2025
Outside the gates of the beautiful High Point University campus, there is a city that is struggling to feed its citizens. The streets surrounding the school are scattered with locals who are begging for any ounce of humanity people are willing to offer. The city is currently ranked number 14 on the national scale of food insecurity according to the Greater High Point Food Alliance.
One look at the city and that can be confirmed to anyone who walks through.
Healthy food has become more of a luxury than an essential in someone's everyday expenses. The people of High Point have been hit with a struggling population, one that values quantity over quality.
As the city faces a 14% poverty rate, the High Point Library is partnering with local organizations to combat this ever growing number.
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Every Saturday morning from April to October, Lee Gant and Mary Sizemore bring out tents and signs into the High Point Library parking lot to set up for the once a week farmers market.
The time is 7 a.m. and the first vendors start to arrive. The small talk multiplies while fruits, vegetables and homemade bread loafs start to fill the once empty spaces. The lonely parking lot is coming alive with laughs and vibrant foods that will soon be flying off the tables.
Mary Sizemore, director of the High Point Library, has been overseeing the farmers market since 2014 and the progress she has witnessed is impeccable.
“One of the things we are proudest of is how we built a whole community around the market and are still seeing the progress of more and more people coming to either purchase or hang out,” said Sizemore.
The city of High Point started to fund the market back in 2014 when all the major changes were happening. Since then, the market has been able to expand from two vendors to over 15 people selling at the market. Along with getting more vendors to purchase from, the city has been the sole financial provider to keep the market running.
EBT cards and food stamps are now accepted forms of payment at the market on behalf of the city, and Bethany Medical has introduced a “Double the Bucks" program that has been running since 2020. The program allows customers to use their EBT cards and get twice the amount of tokens to spend, leading to larger amounts of food being bought.
“We are rewarding people for making the effort to want to eat healthy,” said Gant. “Instead of going to the Food Lion and getting chips and soda they get fresh fruits and vegetables.”
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The problem still stands that High Point locals lack education on nutrition because of the food insecurity around the city. This concerns parents who want to raise healthy children but either can't afford the right food or don’t know where to start.
U.S. students receive less than eight hours of required nutrition education each school year. That's far below the 40 to 50 hours that are needed to change behavior according to the CDC.
The importance of teaching kids healthy eating habits is more prevalent in a city such as High Point where the opportunity to eat healthier is slim. The market is combating this by hosting programs such as PoP.
PoP (Power of Produce club) is a program aimed at teaching kids what food is nutritious to eat and what benefits they have for the body. They get to talk to local farmers and bakers to learn about what each fruit and vegetable can be used for. It steers them away from wanting to reach for the unhealthy snacks by learning where the food comes from and how it's grown.
Kids get a couple tokens to spend on produce to also teach money management and help them learn that healthy food is not always out of reach.
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One mother and little girl always catch Sizemore’s eye. She has noticed them coming to the market a couple weeks in a row.
“They are there every week, spending their 15 tokens, getting their produce and there they are again next weekend getting the produce they couldn't get last week,” said Sizemore. “Even when the mom is tired and probably doesn't want to be at the market at 10 a.m. she shows up for her daughter every week.”
Even though the market emphasizes education for children, adults can also partake in some health conscience programs at the market.
Gant has been working with High Point University to have nursing students perform blood pressure and glucose checks on those who don’t have regular access to a doctor. They also provide nutrition facts to adults about what foods they should always have in their diet.
“We want to check in on our community and make sure we do as much as we can to keep people healthy that goes beyond just produce,” said Gant.
You can see Gant with his white polo shirt and Sizemore with her electric blue library t-shirt patrolling the library parking lot every Saturday. Talking, laughing and enjoying the market hours with the people who come to buy their fresh food.
While the farmers market closes at the end of October, they are constantly working to come up with new ideas and programs to keep their city happy and healthy.
“Our goal isn't a profit or to hit a quota, it's to really get to know the people we live around and to come together as a community and enjoy healthy food,” said Sizemore.
The last day of the market is October 25, 2025.