She has operated the Farmers' Market at Forest Park since 1998.
Belle Rita Novak has operated the Farmers' Market at Forest Park since 1998.
Belle Rita Novak doesn’t sit around complaining about stuff and waiting for someone else to take action.
Rather, she has spent a good part of her life in Springfield making things happen.
Whether it’s serving as president of the Forest Park Civic Association or on the board of trustees of the Sinai Temple or running the Farmers’ Market at Forest Park since 1998, the 71-year-old tells it like it is and gets results.
“I’m a big believer in if you want things to improve, you have to do something to help improve it,” she said.
Case in point: When Novak was tired of seeing graffiti mess up her Forest Park neighborhood, she attended a board meeting of the Forest Park Civic Association to ask for a clean-up day.
The board put her in charge of those efforts. A few years later she became president.
She is passionate about promoting the city’s events, activities and neighborhoods.
“I know there are a lot of people who complain about Springfield, saying this and that and usually with a negative comment after it, but I don’t feel that way,” she said.
“I’ve lived enough places to know there’s no utopia.”
Having grown up in Longmeadow, she was married at age 19, moved to Manchester, N.H., and had two sons and a daughter.
Thirteen years later, her husband, Leonard P. Novak, passed away and she moved to California and later to Spokane, Wash. because she “needed a distinct change in my life.”
Novak moved back to Longmeadow in 1981 and three years later settled into a home in the Forest Park section of Springfield built in 1927.
She is close to her children and grandchildren and enjoys spending time with them.
David Novak, 50, is a rabbi in Manchester, Vt., Jeffrey Novak, 48, lives in Longmeadow and owns a business called Security Engineering.
Her daughter, Jennifer Novak, 44, is a clinical social worker in Washington, D.C.
Since she was a young bride, Novak, who likes making her own jams and cooking meals, has always appreciated and supported the efforts of farmers and would shop whenever possible at local farmers’ markets.
“One of the things you have to do is be a patron of the places that grow your food,” she said.
Her desire to “bring the country to the city” led her to work with others to establish a farmers’ market in Springfield.
Fifteen years ago when they began that effort there were 98 farmers’ markets in Massachusetts; today there are about 200, she said.
Novak looked to the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, read books on the topic and held discussions with other farmers’ market managers to get the local market operating.
The summer market began behind the Goodwill building on Sumner Avenue before moving down the street to the parking lot at Trinity United Methodist Church.
When they needed more space, the operation moved to Cyr Arena inside Forest Park.
Since it started, the summer market has grown from five vendors to about 22.
Four years ago a winter farmers’ market was added at the Old Monkey House inside Forest Park and features about 15 vendors.
As the market manager for both seasons, Novak is responsible for organizing the markets and getting vendors interested in selling such items such as vegetables, handmade soaps and fresh baked goods. She also writes a newsletter for the summer market.
“My goal is to get more people to buy local products. I always say that farmers are willing to do all the hard work and if we have to inconvenience ourselves once in a while to get their products, well that’s what you do,” she said.
Richard Wysk, owner of River Bend Farm in Hadley, has been selling his vegetables and free-range eggs for 13 years, including the last three years in the winter, at the Farmers’ Market at Forest Park.
He said there probably wouldn’t be the local market without Novak.
“The farmer’s market is pretty much her. You don’t run into too many people who have the enthusiasm and the drive to keep it going,” he said. “She’s the one who’s on top of her game.”
Zach Eaton of Berkshire Mountain Bakery in Housatonic, one of the long-time vendors at 15 years in markets run by Novak, said she has a “rough exterior but is really a teddy bear.”
“All the vendors have respect for her. Everyone knows she’s looking out for them,” he said. “She’s an intelligent woman and a good egg.”
Novak describes her work with the farmers’ market as a “labor of love,” and without hesitation, says she believes she is “indispensable.” And jokingly adds, “When I die they’re going to have to stuff me and place me in a chair at the farmers’ market.”