It Takes a Community to Have a Farmers' Market

I met Heather Macdonald 2 years ago - she ran the by herself from 2005 to 2010. Sally Frank began the market and ran it from 1994 and passed the baton to Heather. When Heather took over, she tried to grow the market by calling new farms each year. She would barricade the City Hall parking lot before the market then put signs up around the city on market day. She would enlist friends when she and her family went away to put out signs and the barriers. With 3 children, you might imagine how difficult it was to run a market. In 2010, I offered to help her grow the market, knowing she wouldn’t be able to put any more time into the market than she already had. At the same time, Renee Tennison also asked if she could help grow the market. We three knew what we wanted, but we had no idea how difficult it was going to be to get there.

What I’ve discovered over the last 2 years is that it couldn’t be just the 3 of us organizing and running the market - we all volunteer our time and we have to balance the market needs and our life’s needs. And it turns out, when asked, the city, businesses and residents step up and also help out to make the market happen. After a bumpy ride in 2011, we hunkered down during this past winter to plan for a renewed market for 2012. 

First order of business, finalize the location of the market. Alderman Frank Wright and Alderman at Large MaryBeth Margolis helped us ensure we had contacted all the businesses and residents around park. Joan Bell helped us find the names of the area businesses and residents. Sgt. Jon Goc, the Traffic Officer, helped us with the parking and traffic patterns for the neighborhood. Everyone was more than helpful. 

Next up, we needed to call more farms - easier said than done. With a list of over 600 farms to call, we enlisted a half dozen volunteers to call around. This is one of the hardest jobs. Today there are over 250 farmers markets in Massachusetts compared to less than 100 in 1994 - all competing for the same farms. What brings a farm to a city is the amount of people who will go to the farmers market - with less than 2% of the citizens of Melrose coming to the market, it became difficult to entice farms. It’s a chicken and egg scenario - bring the farms to the market and the people will come - bring the people to the market and the farms will come. The original crew was Amie Labella, Paula Isenberg, Michelle Madeline, Becky McGill, and Maureen Elia. 

We next had to get the word out to people - we changed the time and location of the market - we wanted to make sure that people would find us again. That’s when we became blessed with Danielle Robertson, a graphics designer at Boutique Graphique, who came up with logos, postcards with location maps, the kiosk poster, the banner, and the way signs you will see around on market day. We used these graphics at the Healthy Melrose Fair, posters in business windows as well as many, many other locations. Many people helped put the signs up including Danielle, Janine Venuti, Heather Macdonald, Lauri DiMattia,  Carol Nelson, Kara Showers and Melissa Ripley. 

We tried to change our look on the internet - someone knew someone who did websites in Melrose, so Brian Johnson at BKJ Productions in Melrose sat with me for over an hour generously giving his time going over some of our options for increasing our social media exposure. Then Megan Sampson came on board and took control of Facebook and Twitter. 

The new item this year is that we will accept SNAP (supplemental nutritional assistance program - formerly known as food stamps) benefits at the market.  The USDA has a program where farmers markets can accept SNAP benefits and allow more people access to fresh food. However the process of putting a program in place is an investment in both time and money, both of which we have limited resources. We received a grant from the Mass. Dept. of Agriculture to put the program in place. Then we received word from Ruth Clay at the Melrose Health Dept. that they also wanted to make sure we could accept SNAP benefits at the market. The Health Dept. received a grant from Mass. in Motion whose mission is to provide ways for people to eat better and move more; a portion of that grant helped us get the necessary equipment to make it all happen. But more than that, the support from the Health Dept. has been phenomenal, providing us access to meet people we had never had before. Kara Showers, who is coordinating that grant for the Health Dept. has been very supportive of all our efforts to have a successful market. 

Everyone around Bowden Park has been very supportive. The Rev. Bruce Lomas has allowed us to use their parking lot for our vendors to park. Fred McHale at McHale Tile and Carpet has allowed us to use space to store our tents, tables and chairs as well as use a dolly to get it across the street. Bonnie Roberts at Nails by Bonnie has allowed the vendors at the market access to the necessary during the market.

The logistics of accepting SNAP benefits had to be created. Diane Bagley designed the graphics for the Market Money and generously printed the scrip. Laura DiMattia, Carol Nelson and Marlena DiMattia sat together to laminate the money. Equipment for the market needed to be purchased - Lorenzo Tenreiro from Coffee Tea and Me and Laura DiMattia drove to Cosco to pick up things that we needed. The Dept. of Transitional Assistance in Malden allowed us to be at their office 2 times a month to tell people about accepting SNAP and its matching program - the people who are doing that include Deborah Giso, Becky McGill, Maura Donahue, Becky Sozanski. 

All this was just to prepare for the market - there is another group of people who are to help run the market during the season. Then the musicians who have given their time and talents to be at the market each week. It truly takes a community to have a farmers’ market. This year we have 2 farms with vegetables and fruit, a meat farmer, fresh fish, bread, a diverse selection of both sweet and savory baked items, dog treats, and soaps. We will be every Thursday, rain or shine, starting this week from 1-7pm at Bowden Park across from the Cedar Park Station. See you at the market!