Celebrating the 1st year of Salt City Market
Meghan Hendricks | Photo Editor
Along with a wide array of dishes from different cultures, Salt City Market also offers movie nights and cooking classes.
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Downtown Syracuse’s Salt City Market is celebrating its one-year anniversary with a weeklong celebration. After opening during the pandemic, one of the most difficult times for restaurant businesses, this anniversary sparks an even bigger reason to celebrate.
Although it’s only been a year since its opening, the idea of conceiving a food hall and public market had been in talks since the mid-2000s by community organizers. In 2018, the Allyn Family Foundation created the Syracuse Urban Partnership (SYRUP) and began the process of bringing the market to life.
The foundation focuses on community prosperity, and its mission is to improve the quality of life in central New York through collaborative partnerships with organizations and the community.
Adam Sudmann, Salt City Market’s founder and manager, shared how this space came to life and became somewhere community members could come together with their small businesses.
“Through the vision of the Allyn Family Foundation, we were able to build this market and create a place where people could open independent businesses, have the potential to fail, but also have the potential to really soar,” Sudmann said.
The market is located in the heart of downtown Syracuse at 484 S. Salina St. It includes 10 food vendors, a cafe and bar, a cooperative market and 26 apartment units.
Patrick Hardy, a Syracuse University graduate student and resident at a Salt City Market apartment, shared his experience living there.
“It’s been good so far. Since living there and seeing how they employ the community and seeing all the good work they do on the second floor, it’s been cool living there and having a community while being away from home,” Hardy said.
Having a diverse community has been Hardy’s favorite aspect of his living experience at the market, along with seeing the surrounding community thrive.
At Salt City Market, you can find a wide range of food, from Jamaican oxtail to Burmese samosas. The market also holds multiple monthly events such as movie nights, live music and cooking classes.
“We have a lot of hidden talent in Syracuse,” Sudmann said. “A lot of our entrepreneurs have been extraordinarily successful. That’s incredibly gratifying to see.”
Ushni Gupta, a customer of the market and SU senior, shared that this diversity is the reason she keeps coming back.
“My favorite part of the market is how they have multiple cultures represented in one space, showing how Syracuse is a melting pot of different cultures,” Gupta said.
Another facet of SCM’s service to the community is Double Up Food Bucks, a food incentive program the co-op market implemented that doubles the value of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’s nutrition benefits.
SNAP is a federal program, formerly known as food stamps, that provides low-income families and individuals nutrition benefits that are used to purchase food. This coalition with Double Up Food Bucks works by providing users of SNAP with a $1-to-$1 match to purchase locally grown food and vegetables.
Salt City Market serves as more than just a food place; it’s a place for Syracuse residents to show off their diversity. This aligns with the market’s mission to create space for Syracuse “to show itself off in all of its culture, glory, richness and grit.”
“Our mission is two-part: helping people build generational wealth through what they love, and being a crossroads for Syracuse,” Sudmann said.
Published on January 26, 2022 at 11:38 pm
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