When you walk in the doors of the Empire Market, you support our mission to build community through food. Over the years, you have helped our vendors grow, supporting them through a global pandemic, planned your grocery shopping around what is in season, and joyfully made us part of your Saturday morning routine. Empire Market is the hub that it is today because of you. Thank you!

Here are just a few ways you’ve helped us grow in the last year:

Monthly vendor sales are up an average of 63% per month in 2026 compared to 2025
We’ve doubled our produce vendors, ensuring you have a stock of beautiful produce at all market days
Nearly twice as many people attended Paris Week 2026 compared to 2025

With the opening of the Jane and Bunny Newton Community Kitchen, Empire Market is now a destination for culinary delicacies: Thai curries, quiche, brisket tacos, empanadas, pupusas and more are staples of an Empire Market lunchtime. Your support of our mission made this possible.

Your help is needed to keep growing at this pace. Vendor space is getting tighter, we have a historic building with specific needs, and are nearing peak season. Our much-beloved Holiday Market may have to turn vendors away because we’re full to bursting.

Your gift will help Empire Market improve our programs, maintain our amazing building, and begin planning for the future.

Thank you for building community through food. Thank you for the joy you bring each Market Saturday. Thank you for believing in Empire Market.

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The Empire Market is a indoor, food-centric farmers market, now with expanded outdoor facilities. You might have been to something similar in other cities including Kansas City’s River Market, Soulard Market in St. Louis or Pike Place Market in Seattle. Opened in late April of 2018, the Empire Market has 40-50 vendors each week, all selling items they have made or grown themselves. You won’t find any veggies with stickers here!

The Empire Market is an economic and community centerpiece that strengthens and engages the entire city. A vibrant four-season market where you can find the best of what this area has to offer; produce, meats, cheeses, bread, wine, coffee, crafters, artisans and any number of other vendors, set up in a collection of permanent and rotating stalls. Visitors can also enjoy freshly prepared gourmet food from the Newton Kitchen as they relax in the adjacent cafe located in our Lineman's Hall, or eat at one of our al fresco areas during the warmer months.

In December of 2016, the Empire District Electric Company donated to the Downtown Joplin Alliance over 33,000 square feet of buildings on 3.34 acres in the center of Joplin. The primary structure, built in 1907, is located at 4th and Railroad. Downtown Joplin Alliance has re-purposed this historic building and its environs as a community gathering spot and incubator for small business.

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Downtown Joplin Alliance is a 501c3 originally formed in 1989. We guide community-based revitalization efforts focusing on Downtown Joplin. We follow the National/State “Main Street” model to harness the social, economic, physical, and cultural assets that set Joplin apart and lead to tangible outcomes that benefit the entire community.

We leverage both the art and science of downtown revitalization to create a better quality of life for all. The result of these efforts is a community with strong social cohesion and economic opportunity; a downtown that supports and sustains innovation and opportunity; places where people of diverse perspectives and backgrounds come together to shape the future.

Ultimately, we strive to create a place where people love to be. A place that values its history, but looks forward, ready for the future.

The organization is largely self-funded through events, donations, and sponsorships, and has a contract for services with the city for the Endangered Properties Program.

For more information on our organization, programs, and events, please visit downtownjoplin.com

Support the Joplin Empire Market!

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