CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Keep Your Faith Corporation CEO Dural Miller says that the launch of Miss Ruby’s Corner Market will allow residents to have access to fresh produce and products.
“A lot of folks in our neighborhood doesn’t have access to fresh fruits and vegetables,” Miller said on 580 Live Monday December 23. “And we started doing pop-up farmers markets in the elementary school and the senior high rises and we just got more feedback about they’re wishing it was more readily available.”
KYFC worked together with the City of Charleston to secure a building on the west side, located at 739 Central Avenue, which was the former Park Place Bar. And despite running into a few problems along the way, KYFC, with the help from WV Food and Farm Coalition, they were finally able to renovate the building and get it up and running after two years.
Miller said that the market is going to offer a variety of things.
“A lot of local products, a lot of local farmers, like local honey, hot sauce and we also have a deli in the back, Chef Ke’s is leading up that,” he said.
Along with the honey and hot sauce, they will also be providing fresh produce, homemade jams, farm-fresh eggs and plenty more.
And the inspiration behind KYFC and the market was a local farmer that Miller met when he was younger, Tom Toliver. Toliver told Miller that he should attend a Junior Master Garden class at West Virginia State, which taught him all about farming and gardening.
With his knowledge from the master class, he was given the opportunity to teach special education students about gardening and farming.
“West Side Elementary gave us the chance to put a small garden in their yard, two plots, and then we ended up growing that to 30 beds,” Miller said. “We had u-shaped beds for the wheelchair kids, back in the day when we first started, it was just for special education classes. Because we didn’t see them outside doing anything and people wanted to create a space where they could come, their family could come and feel comfortable.”
And that has expanded into what KYFC is doing now, bringing youth into the facilities and letting them help out.
He said that it’s great to see kids learn about where there food is actually coming from.
“Now you can grow these things and you can grow them right in your backyard if you want too,” Miller said. “It’s been to even listen to some of the young folks, thinking how they see, I wasn’t even thinking about it like that.”
To learn about the market, you can check out the website here. For when it’s posted on the website: https://msrubyswv.com/about