Public markets have played a big role in my relationship with the food system. Pictured above is the West End Market in Cleveland, Ohio which I stopped at on my drive down to Louisville. There is something exciting, welcoming, and amazing about being in a public market surrounded by vendors. There are a lot of smells, sounds, and things to gaze at. My first public market experience was Reading Terminal Market. Growing up in the suburbs of Philadelphia it was always a treat to go to Reading Terminal and get a chocolate dipped chocolate chip cookie. I  also interned at the Boston Public Market (BPM) for three semesters. The BPM opened in July 2015 and I got to work there the year leading up to it’s opening and really see what it took to open a market. I returned for another semester and discovered the different challenges of then running a market. What makes the BPM so unique as a public market is that all the food is locally sourced from New England. I have had the opportunity to conduct site visits to where the producers grow and make their products and it brings a new perspective to what goes into a something before it magically appears on the shelves of a store or on your plate at a restaurant. From my time spent eating, shopping, and working at public markets I have gained a huge inside perspective on the food system.