Farmers Markets and Parks and Recreation

 Farmers markets  and community supported agriculture (CSA) programs provide opportunities to promote access to healthy foods and provide families with nutrition education. As trusted providers of accessible health and wellness opportunities, park and recreation agencies are well-suited to expand local agriculture initiatives.

Farmers markets and CSA programs are a win-win for local government, community partners, producers and consumers. They serve as venues for community engagement and cultural reflection, bringing together people from diverse backgrounds and providing an opportunity to engage with key stakeholders and community members across multiple generations. In addition, farmers markets create job opportunities as most market produce is sourced within a 100-mile radius of the market location.

Park and recreation sites are a perfect place to start a farmers market ( see more ), which will support local growers and increase the availability of fresh foods to people in your community. But, just how do you do it? How do you create opportunities to have a regularly occurring, institutionalized farmers market, or a “pop-up” farmers market that is available on a more periodic schedule, at your park and recreation site? This guide provides some suggestions for getting started.

• Find out what your community wants in a farmers market. Conducting a  community needs assessment  through formal or informal surveys, focus groups, or community conversations is a great way to ensure what you are offering is what the community wants.

• Learn from the experiences of other markets. Visiting neighboring towns that have farmers markets and chatting with the market manager and partners are great ways to gather ideas, learn from their experiences, and help craft your plan for implementing and hosting a market in your community.

• Decide whether ongoing or pop-up markets are right for your agency. If space is limited, or if there’s an existing market in your community, hosting a pop-up produce distribution event or a CSA program occasionally might be a better fit for you. But if you do have plenty of space and no competing market, consider hosting a regular, fully staffed market.

• Identify partners to support your farmers market. Forming partnerships is key to supporting your market. Consider partnering with local extension agencies, volunteer organizations, youth organizations or a local market manager.

• Offer nutrition education. Consider ways you can offer education around the produce being sold to ensure your market shoppers understand what to do with produce that may be new to them, so they can enjoy it to the fullest. Offering child-based education is a great way to keep kids engaged and enthusiastic about healthy foods while parents and caregivers shop. For more information see NRPA’s Existing Farmers Market:  Fun for Kids worksheet  and the  Intergenerational Farmers Market Engagement guide . 

Supporting systems that ensure that everyone can access the benefits of fresh, local produce is a key way to support community health and well-being.

• Location. Positioning your market in an area that’s accessible by safe walking trails and public transportation and in an area that has ample parking is a great step toward physical accessibility.

• Inclusion. Consider not only physical accessibility covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act, but all forms of inclusion to ensure that all people can fairly and fully experience the market. Some strategies may include to post market signage in the primary languages of your community members, include visuals for those who learn better through pictures, and consider having a translator or interpreter on-site to field questions.

• Financial.  Accepting SNAP and WIC benefits at your market  helps ensure that everyone has access to healthy foods. Consider partnering with your state or local extension to see if double-up programs are available, which match the amount spent through SNAP and WIC benefits. Also consider providing vouchers that can be redeemed at the market to increase market attendance or to reward participation in park and recreation programs. Learn more about these programs from a recent  NRPA webinar  featuring the West Allis-West Milwaukee Recreation and Community Services Department. 

Recruiting vendors is the first step to attracting customers and residents to a farmers market. Try to identify and invite vendors who sell a diverse range of food items and products to minimize competition among vendors. In addition, try to attract people of different groups from the community. Minimizing competition among vendors may make new vendors feel more inclined to participate. Vendors may prefer the convenience of participating in farmers markets that are within a closer proximity to them, or ones that they have previously participated in. Recruiting vendors to participate in farmers markets located in rural areas may be especially difficult due to costs related to travel and time.

If you are starting a new farmers market, you may face barriers in recruiting vendors to participate in a new market with unknown earning potential. Engage with the vendors who do participate to collect feedback for quality improvement. Building trust and awareness in the community is a multi-year process. When communicating with new vendors, try to expand upon how the potential benefits or outcomes of participating in your farmers market outweighs the time and financial resources required. There are a variety of avenues that farmers market management can employ to recruit vendors, including websites, recruitment fliers and online directories. Farmers market managers also can identify specific products through customer surveys that they may currently sell and that are in demand and try to invite vendors who supply the product to participate. For more information, check out page 8 of NRPA’s  Best Practices Guide for Increasing Access to Healthy Foods through Innovative Strategies .

Young adults may be one of the most untapped resources when it comes to staffing farmers markets. As either paid interns or volunteers, young adults can support markets in a variety of ways. Teens can help with farmers market activities, such as:

• Assessing the needs for creating a market at your site. Young adults can survey children, families and those in the surrounding neighborhood about what they would want in a farmers market. Young adults also can conduct a site-feasibility study to assess space and equipment needs.

• Attending meetings with park and recreation staff, vendors and others during the planning stages.

• Serving as a market ambassador on market days to support community members with questions.

• Helping set up and clean up the farmers market site.

• Selling produce at the market or handing out CSA shares.

• Hosting educational sessions on fruits and vegetables sold at the market and/or included in the CSA boxes.

• Leading cooking/food preparation activities during the market hours or CSA pickups.

Farmers markets bring healthy food options to residents of big cities, small towns and every place in between. Families, farmers and vendors all benefit from farmers markets’ role in promoting access to fresh produce and addressing the social determinants of healthy living. Farmers markets also can be a fun tradition that brings family, friends and neighbors together through education, entertainment and community engagement.

Local park and recreation agencies play a critical role in bringing farmers markets to their communities, with their parks and facilities being a frequent home of these events. As a trusted provider of health and wellness opportunities — from a place for physical activities to classes on healthy cooking — parks and recreation is a natural home for farmers markets.

Many federal child nutrition programs have been established and funded throughout the United States because they provide opportunities to deliver healthy foods and to promote physical activity. These programs allow children to access free meals during times when they may otherwise miss meals they rely on while in school. Farmers markets can serve as the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) meal service sites in the summer for programs, such as SFSP, because they serve as a community gathering place, they operate when children are out of school, and they provide a safe and educational space for children to eat. The markets also benefit from serving meals because they can increase foot traffic and visibility. For more information, see page 6 of NRPA’s  Best Practices Guide for Increasing Access to Healthy Foods through Innovative Strategies .

Collaboration to support a market is a key part of a successful, impactful market, and often results in dynamic community partnerships. Farmers markets exist in large cities, small towns and every size locale in between. But while many of these farmers markets take place on a park and recreation agency’s property, it does not mean the local agency operates the market. Actually, slightly more than half —  51 percent  — of park and recreation agencies that host farmers markets on their properties manage those markets. For the other 49 percent of park and recreation agencies that host farmers markets, a separate entity manages some or all of them, including:

•        Local nonprofit

•        Private company/organization

•        Other local government department/agency

•        Faith-based organization

•        Local chamber of commerce

Four in five park and recreation agencies that host farmers markets work with partners to ensure that these markets are successful. Nonprofits are common partners, working with 44 percent of park and recreation agencies that host farmers markets, as this  example from Berea, Kentucky  shows. A third of park and recreation agencies works with each of the following types of partners:

•        Farmer/Rancher organizations

•        Other departments/agencies of the local government

•        Community development organizations

•        Local extension offices 

Farmers markets and vendors can receive authorization to accept SNAP benefits for eligible food products. In addition to traditional grocery stores and other food retailers, farmers markets are ideal food retail spaces to accept SNAP because they sell SNAP-eligible foods, including fruits and vegetables; meat, poultry and fish; dairy products; breads and cereals; and seeds and plants. All states now use electronic benefit transfer (EBT) systems to distribute SNAP benefits on a government-issued debit card that can be used at farmers markets and traditional food retail stores. Establishing an EBT system to accept SNAP at your market for the first time or expanding EBT coverage to more vendors at your market may be challenging. Markets and vendors must be licensed by the USDA Food and Nutrition Service to accept EBT. Depending on the capacity of your staff or market coalition, and the vendors’ experience with EBT, there are considerations and challenges with each approach.

The market-operated approach is the more common approach for accepting SNAP benefits. The market applies to become an authorized SNAP retailer and manages the point of service (POS) device from a central location on behalf of all vendors. The market is responsible for converting SNAP EBT into market currency, such as tokens, for the customers to use at participating vendors. The vendors then receive reimbursement from the market, which may take up to a week or more. If a market does not want to rent or buy a POS device, your state may have free POS equipment available. The vendor-operated approach requires that each vendor applies individually to become authorized SNAP retailers. This means that each vendor also must have their own POS device. While this may be a barrier for some inexperienced vendors, it may be more efficient for other vendors, because they do not have to use market currency and instead receive payments directly from customers. For more information, check out page 9 of NRPA’s  Best Practices Guide for Increasing Access to Healthy Foods through Innovative Strategies .

While fresh produce, baked goods and proteins are main attractions at farmers markets, the selling of food is by no means the only “attraction” that brings attendees to the markets. Farmers markets also can be places to entertain and educate residents while building a broader sense of community.

For example, 62 percent of park and recreation agency-hosted farmers markets link arts and cultural events at these markets; 37 percent of agencies provide intergenerational/family activities. Slightly more than half of these farmers markets provide educational opportunities, such as library services, health screenings and vendors providing informational pamphlets. Similarly, markets provide a space for community members to congregate and learn about shopping for and preparing healthy, culturally relevant meals. In fact, 38 percent of park agency-hosted farmers markets teach residents about healthy eating through nutrition education and cooking demonstrations. Forty-three percent of agency-hosted farmers markets assist in enrolling patrons in the SNAP and/or WIC benefits programs.

Farmers markets and parks and recreation are a unique pair that can support community health and well-being. For more on how your agency can support a farmers market or local agriculture program in your community, visit  https://www.nrpa.org/our-work/partnerships/initiatives/commit-to-health/commit-to-health-farmers-markets/ .