More reports from the field I have received in recent days suggest confusion and uncertainty especially around future funding for farmers markets from the federal government. That is not to say that NO funding is available or will be available, but it does suggest that market operators need to be much more creative in their search for funding partners.
I also thought it may be helpful for you to know the linear history of past federal funding, so as to see that it has not always been available, and not always focused on programs at markets.
I’ll write in future months about local and state efforts that have been successful. Feel free to send along any of those you use to include by sending me a comment or through the about page.
FMC sent out a survey to markets and state associations through our listservs asking for information on any funding freezes from their federal grants.
About 20 organizations responded to the survey directly, some with multiple grants. Another 8 organizations responded via email.
(The low level of responses for an FMC survey also points to another issue that FMC has identified in the last few years: it seems fewer markets are applying for these federal grants and USDA is awarding fewer grants each year than previously awarded.*
Many market operators report to FMC that the length and complexity of the proposal and “the randomness of the review process” reduces their interest in applying. A quick review of the funded grants from 2020-2024 suggests that many grants are awarded to entities that support direct-to-consumer activities rather than to farmers market organizations, which may support FMC’s anecdotal information that fewer market organizations even apply.) **
The majority of the responses from the freeze survey (over 70%) were FMPP-funded projects, with LFPA and LFPP tied as the second most used grants (10% for each).
About 50% received notice of a freeze in funding in January. Only one was notified that their grant was cancelled, and that was for an LFPA grant. Many of the others who did not report a freeze or a cancellation said they had NO information at all from their grant administrator.
As of March, many have reported they have been told to submit invoices for work through January of 2025, but report they still lack clarity on future payments.
Some report they are moving ahead “with fingers crossed” that payment will be made, and others say they are beginning to fall behind on some project activities because they are afraid to spend any funds beyond staffing and other absolutely necessary expenses. “we can’t afford to cover those grant expenses with our own general operations funds if USDA stops paying again.”
*In 2015 alone, the FMPP funded 164 proposals, and from 2009-2015 reported they funded 902 proposals.
Recent years:
2024: 60
2023: 55
2022: 55
2021: 88
2020: 49
**My analysis from a 2015 blog post said that for 2015 awards, 47 states, districts, and territories were represented. California had the largest number of grants with 14.
The majority of the proposals focused on simple marketing and outreach for markets. Here were the number of grants that specifically mention one of the following:
Network development/support: 16 (New FM associations: 2)
Additional staffing: 7 (internship program development: 3)
Market manager certification program: 1
Marketing/Outreach
Bilingual materials: 7
Transportation to market: 3
Curriculum: 4
Cooking demos or classes: 29
Kids events: 10 (POP: 2
In 2024, USDA announced the creation of “turnkey” grants through both FMPP and LFPP, suggesting these options were designed to “simplify the application process for common FMPP and LFPP activities, focusing on specific, predefined activities.” The amount of these awards is 50,000-100,000.
(FMC and other sector leaders had advocated for this change through its advocacy network NSAC, suggesting that smaller awards with more specific activities would encourage smaller and newer entities to apply.)
The list of awarded turnkey grants for 2024 included 21 of these grants, with 6 awarded to farmers market organizations.
A beloved neighborhood bakery in New Orleans posted a beautiful piece today on their experience trying to save their business as COVID became the reality for us all. (It’s Bywater Bakery; if you are ever in our city, do yourself a favor and check it out. And read Chaya’s beautiful piece on their FB page.)
It sent me down the same path of memory, although before I read that this morning, I did have to test for the virus once again. I heard from a friend who has miraculously escaped from contracting it over the previous years and finally got it last week, and after traveling 1200 miles across 6 states, I felt a little under the weather and decided to see if I was positive for the virus. This time, I was not, but like her, I also still expect my first positive test at some point….
I remember well the early news stories about the virus, especially as New Orleans had just had a huge Mardi Gras celebration even with the early reports of this virus. (One may remember that the federal response was not clear nor robust.) During MG, I had been on the streets with friends and strangers, but less than some others. That was partly because I had also been very sick with similar symptoms over the holidays, and a pal who was a nurse suggested during Carnival that maybe I was an early victim and asked me to test for it. Although negative, she warned me to be extra careful even in those early days and so I heeded her advice.
I was also extremely lucky to already have a remote job at FMC, and so was inside on my own a lot of the time.
So I spent loads of time on news sites from the beginning, and in reading markets updates and answering emails from leaders, and so I have a unique vantage point to the magnificent way that markets handled this crisis.
I will share that I remember that year mostly in a fog from exhaustion not only because (like so many of you) I worked every day until finally taking a day off in late November, but also because my elderly mother became gravely ill with an infection and had to be hospitalized for 3 months that summer. I’d rise early, attend to emails and FMC business, and then I’d head to her house to feed her cats and then to calls with doctors and caregivers and trying to unpack the medical tangle in conference with my sister who was a thousand miles away, and thankfully a master at deciphering medical and legal technical information. After that, I’d be back to the laptop to do more with markets and local leaders and national partners into late into the night.
I tell you that not to gain sympathy for what was a very typical situation thousands of families had to face, but to share the regular pride and jubilation I felt first thing and then at the end of the day on hearing how state associations and markets were winning the bureaucracy battles, how they made sure to include MORE vendors and MORE initiatives in their makeshift drive through, or one-way, or timed entry markets (remember those words??) and how I had an inkling as to how exhausted everyone was*.
But as a result of that incredible pivot (another word to remember!) during the worldwide emergency, markets gained a lot of respect and trust from some who may have only ever watched us with one eyebrow raised, or without any idea of why we showed up rain or shine, week in and week out.
FMC was asked to join a multi-year, multi sector USDA initiative to catalogue the innovation and challenges of this emergency response. I tell you all, that to a person, every leader congratulated us on how well U.S. markets responded, and noted their brilliant design changes and deep care to make sure that no one was left out. We accepted that on behalf of you all, and did our best to transmit it back to the thousands of leaders doing the actual work.
This is important to remember not only because of this anniversary of COVID, but also because we find ourselves in another national crisis. This time, millions of dollars in funding promised or already underway has been withdrawn with little or no information as to why it is gone or if it will return. Farmers and sector leaders find themselves with costs incurred, promises made, and carefully made plans, now out on their own.
So just as before, I know market leaders will pivot, look for other sponsors or grants for their programs, rework their plans to make it without the promised funding, and ensure that week in and week out, the farmers and makers have a space to collect, share their talents, and make enough to come back another day. Coming back another day is a lot of the battle; the rest is how we treat ourselves and each other during all of the another days after that. I promise, just as during COVID, I’ll be here, doing my best to help but also being nourished by the community built by each of you and by all of you.
*As usual I want to firmly state how talk of “resilience” and resilient systems in that year or the next was very misguided. Resilience is later; what markets (and others did) did that year was pure survival, spending down every asset and bit of energy, hoping to refill it later on. Some were able to do that; others were not. Over the last 3 years, we saw and heard anecdotal reports of even greater staff turnover and many markets struggling to regain their pre-COVID energy. NOW is when to measure resiliency from that emergency; now is when you also note that the emergencies keep coming and formal responses are beginning to lessen, forcing individuals into permanent recovery mode.
This survey is for farmers market organizations with an active federal grant and will be used by FMC and its partners to understand the situation’s scope and to help us all respond.
FMC will share what is learned from this survey on its list-serve and website.
“Chicago officials revealed Tuesday they’re considering opening public markets across the city, pivoting from their 2023 concept of creating a single municipal-owned grocery store.”
The original report recommendation was for a proof-of-concept grocery store, possibly leading to 3 new stores, all owned by the city. Fascinating to see the analysts had suggested an annual subsidy of $130,000 would be necessary for just one store location.
The article credits the Food Equity Council for the change in direction from grocery store to farmers markets. Congratulations to these grassroots leaders.
There are many questions as to how this welcome change might be successfully undertaken, what type of market is best, and how to use properly use farmers markets to address food insecurity.
I certainly hope they avail themselves of the expertise in the national field of 4500+ entities that run the 9,000 or so farmers markets in the US.
STILL, it is a monumental and bold decision, and one that will benefit farmers and neighborhoods in the Midwest’s world-class city.
“We want this to be an example that we can set for other cities who are looking to do this type of food equity work, but ultimately, for the specifics of how many; and who’s going to own and operate; who’s going to pay? We haven’t worked that out yet,” the mayor’s office spokesperson said.”
* There is an unfortunate use of the apostrophe in the article, but one might assume they mean farmers markets even though they use the term farmer’s market (does that mean one farmer?) and public market interchangeably. Yes I’m being a bit snarky, but my pet peeve is the lack of a consistent style choice in writing these terms which makes it hard for the public to understand what we mean.
**The article also suggests that only 2 cities operate markets which is far from accurate. If they mean shed (public) markets, there are quite a few and if they mean open-air farmers markets, there are also likely hundreds managed by their municipality. That is based on information from PPS, from national surveys done by my employer Farmers Market Coalition, and through my consulting for projects that include markets managed by small and large towns and cities.
Farmers markets will become even more important in this chaotic time; consider how to make sure they continue.
Market day should be the priority. That doesn’t mean your programs are not vital (they are!) but if the market doesn’t open none of those can happen.
Some suggestions:
Confirm that your market space will continue to be available. That may be an issue if you only have a handshake agreement with an entity that may not be understand all that the market provides or in some cases, you may just be finding out they may be in opposition to some of the things markets provide. So check, get a signed agreement for a few seasons in place and look for a possible back up spot if needed.
Ensure your budget is not completely tied to federal grant programs. Some folks think that because they get money from a city or a state that it means it will continue, but those monies may originate from federal grants. Check. And start to look for local and regional foundations that support democratic civic activities. Put the word out on social and with your email list that your market has programs that need funding partners. If you haven’t yet partnered with like minded businesses as sponsors, consider this. Tent Talk has LOTS of episodes on partners and fundraising locally.
Revisit your budget to reduce spending anywhere you can. Make sure that the market day budget (meaning the costs for staffing and hosting the actual space) is finalized and separately managed from any other initiative or program budget.
Talk to your vendors. Find out what they are planning, what they are worried about for 2025. So far, it does seem that food producers will be in great demand; encourage them to talk to you about opportunities they are approached about and if you can, help them sort through those. I wish I could tell all of you to not get angry with vendors who pull out of markets (esp at the last minute) but I know we are human and that their absence could be a problem for your market; still I can tell you it won’t help and will make others less likely to tell you if they are getting offers.
If you are approachable, respectful and open to listening to their needs you may see some decide to stay because of that, and if nothing else, by being a good listener, you may know earlier. And because…empathy goes both ways.
Talk to your shoppers. See above.
Do more than use social media; revamp the newsletter, have a simple website, put flyers up, design kitchen magnets with website and phone number, give dedicated shoppers materials to hand out.
Be visible at market.
At market, let’s stay away from shame and blame, and focus on connection and inclusion.
Oh the fires. It’s terrifying to watch them unfold especially viewing from videos taken with hand-held phones with calm narration from the very folks who are seeing their place burn up.
There has been natural (and unnatural) disasters in my own place more than once and so I have a bit of an out of body sensation watching those videos, having made a few myself. Soon will come the overwhelming finality of knowing how many beings have been lost, how many have lost home, how long it will take just to not see or smell the destruction. (I remember driving through Montpelier VT after their devastating flood not that long ago, smelling the musty items out on the curb to be tossed in the trash, and how the years-old Katrina memories came rushing back.)
Once the people are back, there will be a period of exuberance when they are able to stand there, to see each other, and to talk it out. That period lasts for a few months while more come back, while they clean out their places…Then it’s on to other phases, some less pleasant, all of which last years and are much longer lasting than the attention from media or even the kind questions from folks from other places.
I must confess that I only realized a few years back that I have yet to “land” anywhere since the loss of my place in 2005, and have come to see that I cannot seem to trust in the idea of a constant home yet. Instead, I do my best to make that home in many places, and to find small comforts that travel with me.
And yes since this is a blog for market communities, I gratefully include those markets as spaces where I feel less alone, less “on the road.” But its not just the market spaces; it’s also the community of market people who call or email or meet up with me to spend a few minutes or longer, recounting recent experiences or pulling out a shared memory to laugh or to mourn over or ask for my update, listening attentively while I do.
That is the real magic of this work we do: that we create comfort and belonging which doesn’t always live in a physical space, but is carried by a shared belief that showing up, by seeing people as more valuable than just the sum of their transactional history, by pushing against the cynicism of faster and cheaper as better, by looking people in the eye to ask how they are and waiting for an answer, by including everyone, we belong to the comforting.
Our friends in Los Angeles will need that, just as friends everywhere who have lost already have needed that.
That is a huge part of why the work we do is constantly vital even when the markets are closed and market leaders are back to their planning, and our producers are back on the land, and in their kitchens with their recipes and in their fields with their animals…
As many of you have heard, your national market support entity, Farmers Market Coalition, the organization that I have been attached to for the last decade as a staff person, and a half decade before that as a market leader supporting its development, is rethinking its role and structure.
Part of that rethinking means the elected board made a recent decision to put all staff on temporary furlough for at least January 2025, leaving just our Interim Director working to catch up on invoicing and administrative changes.
As painful as it can be to be open about the issues we are dealing with, FMC needs to do what we urge markets to do, which is to be transparent about development plans and challenges.
I have heard from enough markets and network partners that they believe FMC is essential to the field, and vow to be patient for its journey to find the right admin and funding structure, all of which make the idea of being laid off a little less awful.
Still, pulling off a rework is a HUGE task. I hope we can. I do think we can.
While I am off work at FMC, I am focusing on the Market Eras article and then prospectus for a book.
Expect to see more here about that and my own consulting for markets in the next few months but I promise to also share whatever FMC builds for its future when I am able to speak on its behalf again.
Finishing up 2024 work this weekend, to then preparation for supporting organizers amid the bookends of community and chaos in 2025.
But do not expect a deep dive in this post about what may happen in the national political arena around food and farming- at least not yet. Still time to consider plans, still time to replenish….
But in the meantime, here is what I have been saying in the past few months to market organizers that I am in contact with:
Leave blame and shame to other arenas.
Markets need to be centered as places of belonging and connection.
New Orleans LA Crescent City Farmers Market December 2024
Focus on big goals of system change by asking the market organization to consider:
How is the market moving the dial on farmland preservation? How is that work measured?
How is the market including marginalized people of color in its work- and not just as consumers, but as producers, as advisors, as mentors?
What about rural (if the entity is overtly urban focused), or urban (if overtly rural)?
What would that add to your work and to your market?
Does your team and community know the history of subjugation and of centering whiteness in your area?
Does your team and community even know the recent history of market culture (1970-) in your area? Why these markets were founded? Who founded them? How is the market still honoring that history and still intentional in its design?
What external pressures are limiting your work, and who and what processes might help you change those?
What internal structures are limiting your work, and who and what new processes might help you change those?
How are you preparing for interruptions to farming or markets, whether through civic or climate instability?
What is the big idea for your market that you would like to tackle in 2025?
What keeps getting moved off the to-do list every year?
How can we include more people in our work lives, to bring new voices into the work, but also to make sure we are being held accountable and supported.
Can the urge to wait for “perfect” be ignored in favor of what is possible and practical?
I’m out on my “summer tour” of the northeast part of the US leaving my beloved New Orleans simmering and hunkering down for hurricane season, one that is projected to be an extremely active one.
When I began to regularly (around 2009) to leave for weeks and then for the summer, I got a lot of raised eyebrows and jokes about it, but those have completely stopped in more recent years. My take on that is that all New Orleanians are now accepting of the fragility of our coast, and constantly preparing for interruptions that come with the loss of land and the rising temperatures of the Gulf. So now, leaving for a time is one of the new normals. No more friendly texts of “wimp” allowed.
What has also changed is the number of natural and civil interruptions happening in the other places that I visit.
In the areas that I was in just over the last series of months, we watched the Vermont and Kentucky floods, the Canadian wildfires, and many other localized disasters that elicited organizing from one or more market organizations.
That organizing was rarely to raise money or awareness for the market entity, but rather, focused on their role as conveners (using their site for recovery), as analysts of the local/regional food system for media or policy makers, and/or as pass-through entities to get resources to their vendors.
The very nature of open-air markets allowed these varied and immediate responses, since most are without infrastructure and therefore have no physical damage to their own organizational assets. I say that with consideration, because many had to move their location for a few months or even longer, which requires design and logistical planning, work even longer hours than before, and pay for new marketing and messaging to let everyone know what and where the new version was happening.
And for the markets that provide centralized payment processing, the damage to shopper or vendor homes and/or businesses can often mean more and higher average transactions because of increased government benefits and private philanthropy, which in turn – although very welcome – increases the costs of managing such a system, and does not come with appropriate administrative funding increases. (In fact, it seems appropriate to mention here that for most market organizations, ANY significant increased use of their centralized system does not increase their income at the same level, if at all. That is the opposite for brick and mortar stores since those entities own the items they are selling and more items sold mean more profit for the store.)
I point this all out because I have been in the position many times to hear funders and policymakers slide right past markets when discussing how to invest in regional food systems that have suffered losses or interruptions. It also raises a red flag when we use the word resiliency to congratulate those who make it through the recovery phase, even though there are a few other phases before and after.
After the 2005 Katrina Levee Breaks, we had artists sew some of these words into prayer flags for us: Return/Reconnect/Recovery/Reopen/Renew/Rebuild/Rejoice/Rest. What those of us in the Gulf Coast mix since 2005 know now is that resilience comes after all of those if it comes at all.
Recovery does not describe resiliency as one cannot “bounce back” while still in the emergency. Instead, during recovery, we watch markets and other local entities “spend down” their social, intellectual, economic savings, but almost always see the attention moving on when true resiliency should have been measured – meaning long after, and no ‘R” savings account replenishment offered.
As another example, during the COVID crisis, the word resilient was used for direct to consumer outlets opening during the restrictions and although that part WAS incredibly difficult, little research was done on the larger-than-normal turnover of market staff that by state and network leaders noted after the restrictions lifted and markets were allowed to return to previous operational structures.
Resiliency also does not take into account how institutional power brokers use the moment of an emergency to shift the burden of future emergencies away from the formal civic sector and on to informal and individual recovery efforts. Of course, local community leaders should always have a leadership role in recovery but they shouldn’t be expected to raise the majority of the funds, or to be the only local response visible to their neighbors, yet in multiple emergencies, this is increasingly typical. (How many local GoFundMe campaigns, can or clothing drives, and or free 24/7 power/charge stations are managed by corporations?)
During the early days of recovery, a local activist in New Orleans famously refused the word:
So is it even possible to rescue the word to be meaningful to local activists and grassroots organizations, or is it (as Ms. Washington says in the poster above) a word one does not want applied?
How should market communities partner with the formal sector without ceding any local power?
And as importantly, how do we prepare for the injustices likely to be raining down on our communities because of civic and natural emergencies even as we take care of our own health and well-being?
This was an extraordinary set of panels, with the final hour sharing the current difficult situation for a Louisiana black family farm. Learn more and support this farm: http://www.provostfarmllc.com
Highly recommend the educational resources supplied by the Pulitzer Center in association with The 1619 Project. If we want to lead a new system of farming through our work, we need to envelop these experiences and lessons into our governance and business models.
When Charisse was hired as FMC’s E.D. earlier this year, I was intrigued both by her background and her plan to take that big job on, AND to continue to oversee her wildly successful company Lokal Artisan Foods with its French Toast Bites brand. As someone who had also alternated between for-profit entrepreneurial work and community organizing, I was very excited to experience this type of energy from our new leader.
And what energy it was. Charisse never seemed to meet a situation in which she didn’t have the confidence to address, never lacked a joke or self deprecating aside to lessen any awkwardness, and always made sure that folks felt seen and heard, richly using their names and building a special communication with each person. I marveled at all of it. I told her so and hope that I told her so in a way that she accepted it.
She was a constant learner, which I knew had made already her kin among our market leaders, since that is the energy they also bring. I often told her that market managers were gonna love having someone like her in this role and I felt she knew exactly what I meant. Of course one of her first public outputs as our E.D. was establishing a new vendor fund because she had lived that concern, both as a PA market manager and as an entrepreneur.
I was grateful to see how much time she spent on the World FMC Academy calls, attending almost all of them (choosing the early am option of the 2 they offer, in order to make time for them before her long work day started), listening in and sending me dozens of questions and comments during and after those calls.
She jokingly reminded the FMC team on almost every call how recently she had arrived, sharing what day number she was on as FMC’s ED. (She began on June 20, so she was with us for one week shy of 7 months.)
I was humbled by her willingness to use her energy, her enormous social capital, and intellectual bank to assist FMC. To lead an overwhelmingly white staff and white culture to its hoped for future as a leader in the new anti-racist, entrepreneurial, and joyous food system for which farmers markets should lead.
I met her in person only twice, as it was normal for our staff to only meet up once or twice a year in our little remote-officed NGO with staff working at home from coast to coast to coast across the US. I was happy that our East Coast Deputy Director Willa had more face time with Charisse, as did our Philly-based admin/membership person, Meghan. It was great seeing that team begin to form. I was sorry for those staff who never had the pleasure to meet her in person.
I looked forward to seeing her much more in person in 2024.
I’m stunned at this loss.
Not only for FMC, but for her own community and family, and the loss of such promise.
I’m also angry with our world for not taking better care of black and brown (especially female) leaders. I take that indictment as my own future work as well, and promise to do better to support and honor these women.
Here’s to you, Charisse McGill. Rest In POWER.
Part of the FMc team: Willa, Meghan, me, Charisse and Bec in NYC in June at World FMC event
I’m excited to finally be able to spend the time on writing the history of the modern era of farmers markets. Thanks to all who have filled out the survey form already, but if you haven’t yet, here it is again:
The purpose of this will likely be a series of articles for market leaders, policy leaders, and researchers to better understand the importance of the farmers market in the local food movement, with its flexibility in fulfilling market day and also system level impacts while remaining the public, informal face of the entire movement. There are many external challenges ahead, and my hope is this research will offer strategies for offering support to market organizations and to center farmers, foragers, ranchers, and harvesters who are the stewards of land and water and community leaders in every sense.
If the articles turn into a book, it will also be for those general readers who are interested in community and current history, who can learn how to support their local markets more fully .
A few books from my collection. Some of you may note that only one is really what we would define as a farmers market. Even though many of the books in the above pic do not focus on the modern farmers market, I’m sure we’d all agree that knowing what we had previously is vital to understanding the recent past and the present too.
Shout out to The Dane County Farmers Market book seen above which is a treasure trove of the type of primary data that is sooo helpful. Not only does it detail the entire history of what is one of the first of our kind (opening September 30, 1972) designed as a community-led, transparently governed, open-air farmers market, but I also love that the book arranges that history in chapters by its eras of market manager! (Of course I love that because as an FMC staffer, I follow the strategic plan which prioritizes our work in directly supporting market operators.) Kudos to authors Mary and Quentin Carpenter, with equal credit to Mary’s term as market manager.
So how many of you have published histories of your market? Feel free to leave links in the comments…
Helping Farmers Markets Grow 