Mississippi-born Lillie Brinker is the marketing manager for the Auburn Farmers Market, which opens for the first time June 14 and runs to Sept. 27 in the Sound Transit plaza. She comes to Auburn after one year as the manager of the Kent Farmers Market with a strong background in event planning.

Q. Tell us a bit about yourself

A. One of my connections to farming was my grandfather, who was a farmer, and at that time we lived off the land. I didn’t think twice about it. Being young, you just think that’s the way of life. I call it planting seeds. I never connected growing food with being important. Having fresh food was just a way of life. When I moved away to the city where I could get anything and everything I wanted and fast, then I thought that was the way to go. Something in life clicked and led me back to my upbringing. I started looking at how food was produced along the way. It came from my own personal life where I just decided to do it for my own health because I had some things happening to my body.

Q. What is your connection to farmers markets?

A. I used to go to the Renton Farmers Market all the time, and I loved the way it was set up. I had been to other ones, but Renton’s was my favorite. I liked to interact with the farmers and talk to them. Then Karen Kinney of the King County Agricultural Program set up a market in Columbia City, and she was encouraging all of us to come and support it. So again, it was like planting little seeds along the way. So I started to go to markets and enjoy them, still not connecting all of it together. I was talking to her, and she said there wasn’t any representation from Kent. There’s a whole group of markets that get together and talk about market issues and things like that. So I called up Bill Westcot of the Lions Club of Kent about being involved with the Kent Market. I told him what I wanted to do with the market, and he said, “If you can make it happen, it’s up to you.” He allowed me the flexibility to start doing things and getting the market more visible to the community. Unlike here, the Kent Farmers Market is already established. The city connection was already established, and they had vendors coming back. The big thing about the Kent Market was making it more visible. Getting a better market mix, a better produce mix of products. I worked with them. Then I called up McClendon Hardware and said, “Hey, I’m in Kent, and we’re going to do a program with children. We’re going to educate kids about the farmers market and planting seeds. But we need money.” I asked if they would be a sponsor. They became our sponsor for the whole season, and they sponsored a booth, and we had kids plant seeds at that booth. I started doing little things to keep people coming back to the market and keeping it alive. I also was involved in getting entertainment to come to the market.

Q. And how did you come to Auburn?

A. Market managers all go to these meetings in downtown Seattle once a month to discuss markets. We’re a support system for each other. So I was down there, and Auburn City Councilman Bill Peloza, the driving force behind the Auburn Farmers Market, happened to be down there representing Auburn and the core farmers’ market group. We chatted. Then Karen Kinney sent me an e-mail a couple weeks later saying that Auburn was looking for a market manager. I called Bill, and he remembered me. He wanted someone with the energy, the committment to generate interest in this market, and that’s what I’m strong in.

Q. And what does a market manager do?

A. There’s a couple components. There’s recruiting vendors. They have to have a site, so there’s negotiating with that, and there are permits and making sure everything is in compliance with the health department. You just don’t go out and recruit any vendors, you have to make sure you have a great market mix. Like with any business, you have to make sure you have the right products to meet the customers’ needs. And once you get the vendors there, you have to have programs and activities that meet the needs of kids, adults and senior citizens, whatever demographics that you want to come. Right now, we have 34 vendors. That’s more than we expected. We have some applications out there, but we’re probably going to end up with 40 vendors. I will finalize my vendor selection by the end of the month.

Q. What are your hopes and dreams for the Auburn Farmers Market?

A. I want the market to be a very viable part of this community, so that when you think of Auburn you think of the farmers market like all the other events that go on in the community. It’s a small business center for 16 weeks, where you are continually promoting and making people aware of the items they can buy. It’s one-stop shopping here on a regular basis. I want to make it a permanent type of entity in this community. We’ll have berries, fruit, flowers, food, eggs, lettuce. If you can get it in the produce department in your local supermarket, you can find it at the Auburn Farmers Market. Only now you’ll be able to go directly to the person who produced that item. That’s probably the biggest benefit. It’s not shipped out of California, it’s not shipped out of anywhere else, it’s right here. I am very jazzed. This is a win-win situation for the community. You can’t go wrong. It’s one-stop shopping, it’s a chance to meet the people who produce and grow your food.