[photo credit: Pasadena Farmers Market]
The market accepts EBT and participates in Market Match, the Hunger Action Los Angeles program that matches CalFresh spending on fresh produce. The match runs up to $15 per visit, Pasadena Now reported in June. Staff process benefits and issue vouchers at the information booth, which also sells Square-based tokens for shoppers who run out of cash.
Funding behind that match was cut and then partly restored this summer. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed 2026-27 budget did not replenish the $35 million that had funded the California Nutrition Incentive Program over the previous three fiscal years. “We recognize that we’re in tough budget numbers,” Assemblymember Damon Connolly, D-Marin, told Capital & Main in May.
Legislators wrote a one-time $15 million allocation into their joint budget June 11, and Newsom signed a $352 billion budget. Administrators had sought $20 million for the coming year and $30 million the year after. The earlier $35 million allocation runs out in early 2027.
Villa Parke was the first of Pasadena’s two certified markets, opening in 1980 with 17 farmers. A Saturday market followed at Victory Park in 1984. The city’s Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department took over operations in 1995, and surplus revenue funds youth recreation programs at the city’s community centers, according to a City of Pasadena press release.
Sterling has managed the markets since the early 1980s. Growers travel to Pasadena from the Fresno area, the Coachella Valley, San Diego and San Luis Obispo. “My biggest heartwarming thing is people learn to know who grows their food,” she told the Pasadena Weekly.
The market runs rain or shine every week except Rose Parade week, and it stayed open through the pandemic. When the Eaton Fire burned within a mile of Victory Park in January 2025, that market reopened the following Saturday.
State health rules bar animals other than service animals, which may not go under the vendor tarps. Musicians perform some weeks and work for tips; the market does not pay them. Villa Parke Community Center also houses a library, a Head Start preschool and a WIC center.
Need to know: The Pasadena Certified Farmers’ Market at Villa Parke runs Tuesday, Aug. 11, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Villa Parke Community Center, 363 E. Villa St., Pasadena — the intersection of North Garfield Avenue and East Villa Street, one block north of the 210 Freeway and about five blocks from either the Fair Oaks Avenue or Lake Avenue offramp. Most vendors accept electronic payment, and cash is always accepted. EBT is accepted, and Market Match vouchers are issued at the information booth. For more, call 626-449-0179 or visit pasadenafarmersmarket.org/VillaParke.
