Black vendors accuse Washington, D.C.’s largest farmers market of shutting them out
For seven years, Toyin Alli, the chef and proprietor of the Washington D.C. food truck Puddin’, has applied for a coveted spot at the year-round Dupont Circle farmers market, the largest and most profitable location in the city. It’s the kind of place, vendors say, where farmers can make two months of revenue in a single morning. And it’s the kind of place, Alli says, where only one vendor is Black-owned. Alli and other food producers say that Freshfarm, the company that runs the market, has repeatedly denied black farmers and vendors a spot at the market—and now they’re trying to understand why. “Enough is enough,” she tells Forbes. “What criteria are you using to choose her over me?”
