Once a month, the Fenway Community Center, or FCC, hosts a free market in which community members donate used goods for others to collect for free. At the center’s December market, which took place Dec. 10, volunteers handed out pizza and drinks, as well as reusable bags to collect goods from all participants.
“I always come. It’s been really helping me clean out clutter in my apartment because I know it’s going to go to a good place,” said market participant Ruth Khowais. Khowais has lived in the Fenway area for decades and continues to come back to the market every month since it began in April 2023.
Sage Carbone, the director of community programs at the Fenway Community Development Corporation, or FCDC, came up with the idea for the market. The FCDC collaborates with the FCC on multiple projects, including the market. Another major initiative is the Fenway Cares project, a produce distribution program run by the FCC in collaboration with the FCDC and other nonprofit organizations. Carbone has previous experience running a free market from her time at the FCDC.
“I run a quarterly free market in Cambridge that started in the pandemic and when the opportunity came up to host one in the Fenway area, we jumped on it,” she said.
Carbone was excited about the Fenway space, seeing a need for affordable shopping in the area.
“I thought this was an ideal space, because as a former college student living in this neighborhood, I know it’s something that I would’ve really loved to do,” Carbone said.
Mallory Rohrig, the executive director of the FCC, runs the market. Rohrig’s job at the FCC is to create collaborations with other organizations, schedule events and run programs like the free market. To run the market, Rohrig finds volunteers and donors, organizes products and keeps track of who is in attendance.
“We’ve been going on over a year at this point, and it’s been a great collaboration and has really been responsible for bringing not just older adults in the neighborhood together but also the younger generation,” she said. The community center hosts many events, including art classes, book clubs and game nights.
“We also just want to encourage people that this is a space that they can come hang out in,” Rohrig said.
Volunteers like Karla Rideout, a longtime Fenway resident and retired child education worker, help the market operate. Rideout has been active in Fenway community programming since the 1970s, and now volunteers to help combat the decrease in quality of life for middle- and lower-class residents in the area.
“It was a hard time for the neighborhood so there was a lot of activity, and [I] got to know a lot of people. It’s an active community and they do [lots of] things like this [market],” Rideout said.
Amilcar De La Cruz, a new resident of the Fenway area, comes to the market monthly to socialize with his community.
“I come here on a regular basis anyway for community activities,” he said, naming game night and bingo as two of his favorite events the community center has hosted.
Students in the area also attend the market. Meagan Lauver, a doctoral student at Boston University studying neuroscience, said she uses the market as an opportunity to practice sustainability.
“I’ve gotten so many good vintage clothes, I feel like it’s like a great place to get vintage clothing,” Lauver said.
The free market, and the community center as a whole, work to create a comfortable space for all those in the Fenway community.
“Its goal is to be as welcoming … open and accessible to all,” Rohrig said.
