In the Face of Grocery Store Closures in Rural Illinois, Belleville Farmers Market Persists

Rural communities in parts of Illinois have increasingly faced food insecurity due to grocery store closures. But some grocers and farm stands stay committed to bringing fresh food to their community. Belleville Farmers Market, one of Link Up Illinois’ newest Link Match partners, is one of them.

Unlike a regular farmers market, Belleville Farmers Market is a permanent farm stand on the outskirts of St. Louis, run by Danny Schwendeman for more than 50 years. In 2025, his daughter Lisa Schwendeman took over the store. She did so with her community in mind.

“I want it to be one focus, which is produce,” Lisa says, with locally grown items as her priority.

When Lisa learned about Link Match, she realized this opportunity could support her mission to make fresh food affordable. “It was just the perfect thing at the perfect time,” she shares.

For a decade, the store worked with only one local farmer to source tomatoes and watermelons. Since she started, she has expanded their local offerings by working with a new farmer who experiments with different vegetables. Her partnership with Link Up Illinois has allowed the farmer to expand his farming.

“He’s building greenhouses as we speak,” Lisa shared, to provide more variety to the market.

Lisa works with other locals to source one-off items like blackberries. She explains, “Some of these people have a garden in their backyard, and they just have extras.” Those extras become hyperlocal offerings at Belleville Farmers Market, open seven days a week.

Customers have always told her they have the best produce in town, but that it's more expensive. With Link Match, customers are able to double the amount of produce they can afford at her store.

“I’ve had people just break down in tears,” Lisa shared about some customers when they find out about the program.

In 2025, Belleville provided $12,000 in Link Match throughout the whole year. This year, they already matched $12,000 in SNAP purchases within the first two quarters. This is a testament to Lisa’s dedication and the community’s need for the program.

“To me, it doesn’t matter how customers pay. In the short time that we’ve done Link Match, if it’s changed ten people’s lives, great, but I think it’s in the thousands."

What matters to Lisa is that her customers get excellent goods and they’re treated like family.