Dear Friend of Mass Farmers Markets
Thank you for your continued partnership in supporting Mass Farmers Markets mission to partner with farmers, consumers and communities to improve life through access to healthy local food, strengthened community vitality, and enhanced farm sustainability.
Farmers markets have always been vital to the communities they serve. Prior to the pandemic, 229 farmers markets operated throughout the state serving nearly 5M people.
They:
Support the livelihood of farmers and keep farms operating;
Support our environmental goals, by making working landscapes profitable;
Provide opportunities for burgeoning food entrepreneurs;
Create environments where families can learn about and explore new and healthy food.
With the pandemic, farmers markets emerged as essential for all communities. During this difficult time they uniquely provided:
Healthy outdoor environments that provided a sense of safety through enhanced COVID protocols;
Diminished the sense of isolation while reducing the anxiety associated with seeing other people;
Enhanced access to important nutrition incentives such as HIP/ SNAP/ P-SNAP and SNAP Match benefits.
Despite their central role before and during the pandemic, more than 20% of farmers markets didn’t operate in 2020 and markets continue to be vulnerable. For what they provide, they are under-supported and under-resourced.
Markets are primarily organized by volunteers, many of whom:
are retired and at high risk for the coronavirus;
didn’t have the financial resources that the pandemic regulations required; and
simply hadn’t signed up to be “front-line” workers.
Massachusetts’ Pandemic Food Security Infrastructure Grant program didn’t apply to farmers markets. After the final disbursement, farmers markets received less than $3000 of the $54M.
Prior to the pandemic, farmers markets were already under-supported. They received little financial assistance from the state and federal governments. They struggled, and continue to struggle to find grant funds and sponsors willing to provide the financial resources necessary to operate. A value judgment was made, a social agreement of sorts, to create inexpensive marketplaces so that farmers can retain the highest possible return for their farm goods. But marketplaces take time, money, and lots of human capital to create and sustain.
It is time we support the important work market managers provide in creating farmers markets!
In 2022, Mass Farmers Markets is working to increase support of markets across the Commonwealth as we further emerge from the pandemic. Our work will be to strengthen the farmers market industry by finding and bringing increased resources to those who are doing the work.
We cannot do this work without you. Together, with your financial donation, we can support our communities and the local food system in a lasting way. Please join us by donating to Mass Farmers Markets. Every Dollar counts! Consider becoming a sustaining monthly donor.
Thank you in advance for your support.
P.S. There are so many different ways to support Mass Farmers Markets. Find out how you can support our work at: massfarmersmarkets.org/support-mfm
Some examples of current MFM projects are:
Professional Development Speaker Series
This year’s conference and subsequent speaker series is built around supporting market managers. Its focus is on helping market managers develop and build sustainable and vibrant markets. The series launched on March 1 with our Market Managers Professional Development Conference.
On-Line Job Fair
In support of farmers and market managers, we are creating an online job fair to connect market managers and vendors with potential market staff.
The staffing shortage impacted markets and vendors alike. Vendors couldn’t participate in the number of markets they previously had because they didn’t have the staff. And, markets saw a reduction in vendors, impacting the market’s sense of vibrancy and the market’s income.
Winter Farmers Market Initiative
Launched in 2020, MFM’s Season Extension Winter Farmers Market Initiative was a direct response to the pandemic. We piloted the market stalls in 2021 at 4 markets across the state. This program continues to grow.
Outdoor winter markets, although a staple in Europe, are underutilized in the US and especially here in the Northeast. MFM built on this model as a way of extending the outdoor season when traditional indoor winter farmers markets struggled to open. Keeping these markets open during the winter season continues to be crucial for enhanced food access and for the continued growth of the food system here in Massachusetts.
Maximizing Nutritional Benefits
Market managers report that too many SNAP recipients are unsure of how to make the most of the benefits available to them. Market managers struggle to explain the ins and outs of the various programs. If customers were able to optimize the dollars they have access to, $29 of SNAP benefits can turn into $98 dollars worth of food access.
MFM is taking on this challenge. Our goal is to demystify food access and in doing so, reduce the anxiety and stigmatization that many recipients feel.
Given the number of people who rely on food access programs – more than 500K Massachusetts households and more than 920K SNAP recipients – this project has the potential to have an enormous impact on direct-to-consumer sales at farmers’ markets and people’s lives.
For more information on these and other MFM programs, visit our website: massfarmersmarkets.org