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‘‘There’s something different every week. There’s always some new fabulous food of some sort,” he said, noting that he or his wife has attended the market every Thursday since it began. ‘‘It’s also nice to know who’s growing your food.”

The Riverdale Park Farmers Market was founded to provide an outlet for healthy food and as a place to meet people, and 10 years later, it remains successful on both counts, vendors and residents say.

‘‘There’s a group of the same people who come every week, and also there are new people who come every week,” said Roland Walker, who has been attending the market since he moved to town about seven years ago. ‘‘I’ve seen people introduced to each other for the first time here and then have seen their kids playing together a few weeks later.”

With booths set up in the parking lot of the Riverdale Town Center, customers often hop off the MARC train, choose fresh fruit, vegetables or doughnuts, and continue their commute home, said Pat Gladding, founder and chairwoman of the market.

Choosing from an array of about 15 vendors, some local and some from as far away as Pennsylvania, about 400 people wander through the Riverdale Park Farmers Market 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursdays between May and November. Only vendors who produce what they sell are allowed.

Today’s anniversary at the market’s site, the MARC rail station on Queensbury Road, will include a Bastille Day theme featuring face painting, a soccer shootout, waiter races, live jazz, a moon bounce and a raffle.

The market helps support agriculture while providing fresh and nutritious food to the community, said Councilwoman Alice Ewen Walker (Ward 1), Roland Walker’s wife. Ewen Walker has volunteered with the market since 2001.

Miles Spicer, who also has lived in Riverdale Park for about seven years, said he enjoys being able to buy fresh food from the market every week.

‘‘Eating food that doesn’t have a passport is very important,” he said. ‘‘[The market also] provides an opportunity to see neighbors and to develop relationships with the vendors.”

Dan and Susan Gragan, co-owners of D&S Farm in Charlotte Hall, have sold their fruits and vegetables at the market since it first opened.

‘‘We bought the property in 1994,” Susan Gragan said in between serving a constant line of customers July 5. ‘‘We both had full-time jobs [at the time] and within about four years we both began farming full time.”

The couple now sells their goods at seven markets in Maryland, Virginia and the District.

Susan Gragan said she was interested in the market because both the state and the town of Riverdale Park supported it.

‘‘They had good backing and they had a community-based market,” she said. ‘‘So this market provided more opportunities.”

Terry and Linda Moist, who began selling their meat and vegetables at the market about three weeks ago from their Clan Stewart Farm near Huntingdon, Pa. They are pleased with the business they have done.

‘‘A lot of customers are concerned about the things they eat. They’re looking for healthy foods [and we offer that to them],” said Linda Moist.

Ewen Walker said the market receives a $1,500 grant from the Southern Maryland Agricultural Development Commission to help with marketing and outreach and about $4,000 from the town.

‘‘Other than that, it is largely a self-sustaining enterprise. We have a lot of volunteer support. Our farmers and our vendors come and set up their own tables,” she said, stressing that they are looking for more volunteers to help expand the market.

E-mail Maya T. Prabhu at mprabhu@gazette.net.