Fix our farmers markets

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Current pain points

• There are 7 markets with similar but different vendors and structure causes customer confusion
• There are redundant efforts at each market - each has BOD, each has rules, each has by-laws, each has manager, each has own website, each has own facebook, etc.
• There is an issue of vendors meeting requirements but not getting into all markets
• There are various organizations across county/region trying to do the same thing, duplicating effort:
  • BFBL
  • PASA
  • Centre Markets
  • Friends and Farmers
  • Other organizations are doing work parallel to food systems:
    • Hearts for the Homeless
    • Centre County Food Reclamation Network
    • Out of the Cold

Proposed solutionGoal: Let farmers and small business owners do what they do best - farm and be in business. Let an umbrella organization unite and resource the markets of the Centre Region by working to create a with a uniform governance structure, rules and by-laws to enable collective promotion of local foods and farming and to pool resources.

• Umbrella organization = a current non-profit (e.g., F&F, BFBL) or a new non-profit
• Centralize market governance and finances under umbrella organization
  • One BOD
    • Board Member/Market Delegate/Point of Contact from each market
    • Treasurer (allow for stipend for this position)
      • Manage centralized account online
      • Manage funds for centralized marketing and other efforts
      • Work closely with manager on marketing efforts
    • Marketing (allow for stipend for this position)
      • Manage social media and website(s)
      • Manage central marketing efforts and decisions
      • Assist manager with market events
    • Regulatory (allow for stipend for this position)
      • Collect and organize health requirement and insurance information
      • Serve as point of contact for health requirement and insurance education
      • Liaise with Health Department and Insurance company
      • Send reminders for expired insurances and health requirements
  • One set of By-Laws
  • One set of Rules
• Appoint/hire a non-vendor central market manager - Responsibilities:
  • Manage negotiations and contracts with local authorities and landlords RE: market space
  • Manage regulatory process/person
  • Manage Marketing process/person
  • Assist Treasurer process/person
  • Perform farm inspections
  • Make recommendations to Board RE: vendor applications
  • On-site management of markets
  • Manage market events
  • Report to the board
  • Manage EBT program

Areas for improvement under a centralized structureWhen looking across all markets, there are a number of inconsistencies that must be improved in a centralized market structure. Those improvements include, but are not limited to:

• Guest policies are not consistent across all markets, but allow for filling in holes when other vendors are not available and provide a way to “try out” new vendors and for vendors to “try out” what it feels like to be at markets
• Start and end dates are not consistent which creates widespread customer confusion and frustration - dates should be made consistent
• Some markets have a winter location, some do not - again causing customer confusion - winter space should be secured for all markets
• Each market has a website - make one central website (already started - centremarkets.com)
• Some markets have events and some do not (e.g., learning kitchen, festivals, farmers in the classroom, learning gardens at schools, etc.) - spread the events across all markets
• EBT is at some markets and not others - make this consistent so as to make local food available to all incomes
• Consider consolidating some markets due to performance and customer confusion:
  • Consolidate Friday and Tuesday downtown markets to occur Friday’s on Allen Street - current Tuesday vendors can either go to Boalsburg or Friday downtown
  • Consider closing Lemont due to performance

Longer term goalsOnce a central market structure is in place, it paves way for longer term, community wide goals, such as:

• Collect confidential/anonymous financial data from vendors so as to begin to track economic impact of markets so as to work with local authorities on centralized market space
  • Current (extremely rough) estimates based on (extremely) informal data gathering at NAFM estimate that the range of vendor sales is $243,000 - $729,000 for one market season (low end sales reports show $300 per week x 30 vendors x 27 weeks). Imagine if all 7 (or whatever markets) had 30 vendors and performed the same - then multiply that by 7 markets and the range is: $1,701,000 - $5,103,000 - that LOCAL PEOPLE are spending on LOCAL FOOD. Take that to any municipal authority and we believe they would react with support to help with a centralized space.
  • Drive through Maryland - the state has road signs advertising markets - ROAD SIGNS. let’s do this in PA. With data on what support there is for local markets and local food and community - the state will stand behind us.
• Info outlined in bullet one of longer term goals would/could lead to a centralized market space - one building - one location - every day (or many days) of the week
• Community engagement is an important piece in our food system - in a centralized market structure, opportunity would exist to engage various groups within the community. For example:
  • Student volunteers for work experience at markets
  • Engage Penn State Researchers to assist with long term research on local food systems
  • Local organizations could contribute and benefit via events, examples:
    • Girls scouts or boy scouts looking for projects
    • Homeless shelters could benefit from gleaned food via work done with food reclamation efforts
    • Small Businesses could be invited to help startup their efforts

Structure among the involved organizations exists now. Efforts are exceptionally redundant across all organizations. Centralization of funds and people resources would enable this community and region to take the markets and local food system to the next level. Examples exist around the country - Green Markets in NYC being the tightest example - to show this is a functional, practical idea.

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​Current New Market Structure (Typical)

Proposed New Market Structure