Photo by Dragos Condrea - Getty Images
Farmers Market
Neighborhood farmers markets come to fruition by way of passionate volunteers that foster partnerships with an array or stakeholders. As each farmers market flourishes, it takes on its own unique personality, whether it be a social gathering spot with prepared foods and live music, or a fresh, local alternative to a grocery store.
Running a farmers market requires strategic planning that doesn’t come with a playbook. The Southeast Wisconsin Farmers Market Collaborative (SWFMC) was developed through a USDA Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP) grant, administered by the University of Madison Extension, with a goal of strengthening local communities by supporting agricultural initiatives and promoting healthy living.
The three-year, $827,056 grant was received by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System for the project of Community Development, Training and Technical.
As the current season winds down for most farmers markets, managers of four Milwaukee area neighborhood markets that comprise the SWFMC reflect on how their initiatives helped propel their offerings to best serve customers and vendors.
The farmers markets of the Village of Brown Deer, Jackson Park, Oak Creek and Riverwest are part of SWFMC. Their signature project, the Taste It Tent, present at each market this season, let visitors sample different kinds of fresh produce, learn creative ways to use the items in their daily meals, and hear nutritional benefits and learn fun facts about each item.
Emily Fons, the UW regional farmer's market coordinator for southeast Wisconsin, explains that the FMPP grant empowers markets to promote local agricultural product sales and better attendance. “A big component of what we do is implementing data collection practices. It’s something we’re trying to make the ‘new normal’ for farmers markets, which plays into how vendors can be successful and help markets can succeed.”
Taste It Tents Expands Customers Palates
Oak Creek Farmers Market director Dawn Carrillo says when she first launched the market seven years ago, there were no peer groups, and other markets she reached out to for guidance had their own group of vendors and were not willing to share information.
She eventually created a unique sampling model to promote uncommon vendor products and promote interaction with customers. She bought a pint of ground cherries from a vendor and handed them out to kids. They loved it, and she realized a main sampling tent could be a permanent fixture. It was the genesis for the Taste It Tent.
“People love it, and we can direct them to the vendors selling it.” One item is featured each week. Carrillo notes that not only the vendor that supplies product for samples often sells out of the featured item; all the vendors that carry the same item sell out, as well.
The mid-October offering at the Oak Creek Farmers Market was purple cauliflower from Simon’s Gardens. The tent is manned by students from Oak Creek High School that wash, cut and prepare items for samples, encourage customers to try items and look up a fun fact about it.
Oak Creek High School students Ambar Toor and Kailyn Eickhoff recently volunteered at the Taste It Tent. “It’s fun to see people’s reactions and whether they like it or not,” says Toor.
“I like the interactions with people and seeing them try different vegetables,” adds Eickhoff.
Kerry Hoey is the market manager for the Brown Deer Farmers Market. Like Carrillo, she sought guidance for managing a farmers market and navigating nutritional benefit programs such as EBT/SNAP and WIC, and state regulations. She found the Collaborative offered the help she was seeking.
Southwest–Northshore real estate agent Hannah White volunteers to run Brown Deer’s Taste It Tent, along with Chorus Community Health Plans, which sponsors a Food for Kids program that gives kids tokens for produce. “They get fun facts about good food and can interact with the vendors,” Hoey says. “Dawn had a good template and a system in place for us to replicate and implement the Taste It Tent.”
Dena Radtke is manager of the Jackson Park Farmers Market. Their grassroots market began in 2014 by three neighborhood residents under the Jackson Park Community Association nonprofit umbrella.
“We also felt very isolated. There wasn’t a lot of communication that we knew about between market managers,” Radtke says. “Through the Collaborative, we can connect with other markets and learn things along the way, while bolstering sales for vendors.”
Radtke says that while they had planned to offer the Taste It Tent once per month, the ended up doing it every week because it was so popular. Lively and engaging neighborhood volunteers handed out more than 3,500 samples during their 2024 season.
“It brought up interesting conversations about how to use the items. Families shared stories of how these items were used in cooking,” Radtke says. “Our market is very culturally and racially diverse. We found shoppers willing to write signage for us in different languages to reach a broader audience.”
Ruth Weill works at Riverworks Development Corporation, which oversees the Riverwest Farmers Market. One of her roles is director of the market. She recalls the Collaborative coming together organically through meetings comprised of interested market managers.
Weill says their Taste It Tents have been advantageous for both vendors and customers, as customers see how produce items can be used in recipes. They partner with Foodright Inc, a nonprofit food education and advocacy organization, to run their Taste It Tent.
“Because of our partnership with Foodright, we have samples of recipes such a stir fry or a sweet salsa,” Weill says.
Participating markets in the Collaborative must also collect sales and attendance data, which helps track peaks and flows to help make educated decisions. While there was initially some pushback and questions from vendors, such as if their data would be shared with the Internal Revenue Service or elsewhere, managers note that clear, respectful communication informed them of the advantages of data collection.
Exposure Beyond the Market Space
All the market managers concur that the Collaborative and the Taste It Tents offer different ways of engaging community partners, volunteers, nonprofits and local businesses into one space.
Market managers involved with the SWFMC will participate in the upcoming 2024 FEED Summit conference, October 28-29, in Milwaukee. The statewide conference for early-stage food and farming businesses consists of workshops, networking sessions, local food and outings to Milwaukee businesses.
Carrillo notes that that the Taste It Tent is convenient to pack up and take on the road to local events to promote the market outside of their usual Saturday hours. The managers plan to keep the Taste It Tents after the grant ends next season to use for marketing and promotion.
“I think the world of this group and am constantly impressed by how quick they are to take action,” Fons concludes.
It’s not too early to think about next market season; volunteers are often needed at area farmers markets. Visit the website or social media pages for markets near you to get involved. For more information about the 2024 FEED Summit in Milwaukee, visit foodsystems.extension.wisc.edu/2024feedsummit.
