NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Richard McCarthy was one of the brains behind the Crescent City Farmers Market when the idea was hatched at Loyola University in 1995.

McCarthy wanted to develop a market that could both stimulate the economy and bring together New Orleanians from all parts of the city.

Thirteen years later, the market has grown from 12 vendors hawking produce to a rotating roster of about 75 fishermen and farmers and has an annual economic impact of about $6.8 million.

McCarthy donned a cap and gown this month to celebrate a ‘‘graduation’’ for the venture, which has developed into what is officially known as marketumbrella.org.

On Aug. 1, marketumbrella.org will graduate from Loyola — it will receive its official independent, nonprofit status, moving from the university’s Twomey Center for Peace and Justice to its new office Uptown at Tulane Square, next to the regular site of the Crescent City Farmers Market.

The organization began when McCarthy, along with civic activist John Abajian and Sharon Litwin, approached Loyola University’s Twomey Center, an incubator for community projects, with the idea.

‘‘Our most valuable economic asset is our food culture and our people,’’ McCarthy said. ‘‘Our markets can build bridges between different kinds of people and build social relationships.’’

After getting Twomey Center director Ted Quant on board, the Crescent City Farmers Market was born one Saturday at a Warehouse District parking lot. As the group worked together to bring more successful markets to the city — in Mid-City and the French Quarter — McCarthy realized that the organization could encompass much more.

‘‘I think originally it was just an idea with a way for the community to share products,’’ Quant said. ‘‘But once it was created and once it was linking these farmers in rural Mississippi in other areas, the possibilities that it created made it more visible to him (McCarthy). What it was developing in this community was a worldwide movement.’’

In 2005, the organization was renamed marketumbrella.org and expanded its goals to include developing strategies to help others with markets, as well as mentoring future leaders.

Marketumbrella.org has since developed a number of programs, including one that enables food stamps to be used in New Orleans area outdoor markets and another that puts on workshops to help educate those starting their own markets.

Recently, the organization developed a fellowship grant that researches markets all over the globe, from one in the middle of Hollywood to a floating circus in Brazil.

While marketumbrella.org had always intended to eventually be independent, the real catalyst for the move was Hurricane Katrina, McCarthy said.

‘‘The disaster that befell our region is by no means anything to celebrate, but it has opened up a whole array of possibilities. It has brought us closer to the rest of the world,’’ he said.