Building stronger and inclusive CA farmers' markets for the next generation through promotion, training, and communities of practice will increase economic opportunities for direct-marketing producers…

The Ecology Center Inc. was awarded an $823,684.47 Project Grant from the United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service under the Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion Program (FMLFPP) to strengthen and expand California's farmers' market industry through September 2024.

The grant will fund efforts to promote 650 farmers' markets and support over 2,200 producers. This includes digital and grassroots marketing campaigns to develop new customer bases for direct-marketing farmers. The Ecology Center will also help unify and professionalize market management through a new Farmers' Market Certificate program and trainings on topics like COVID-19 response, crowd management, and diversity/inclusion. An internship program will place 18 college students with markets each year. Anticipated outcomes are increased sales, local food consumption, and engagement of over 2 million Californians through advertising. The FMLFPP aims to develop local and regional food systems through competitive grants.

Building stronger and inclusive CA farmers' markets for the next generation through promotion, training, and communities of practice will increase economic opportunities for direct-marketing producers and strengthen california's farmers' market industry. This project builds on a previous fmpp project and enables california alliance of farmers markets, led by the ecology center, to prepare farmers' markets for the future. This project addresses concurrent challenges: marketplace competition; reduced customers; inconsistent quality/knowledge of market managers; limited capacity among market organizations for marketing and outreach; operational changes due to covid-19; increased frequency and intensity of heat, drought, smoke, wind, and flood events; and the need for markets to be more inclusive of underserved communities. The project will benefit 650 california farmers' markets and 2,200 growers through digital media promotion and grassroots marketing to expand farmers' customer bases. IT will build professionalism and consistency among farmers markets by developing a farmers' market certificate program, to elevate the standards for market management; adding trainings and peer-to-peer collaborations to enhance leadership and resiliency related to covid-19, crowd management and deescalation, and justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (jedi). This project will design and launch a farmers' market grassroots marketing internship program; pairing college interns with markets, combining training with hands-on experiences, and cultivating a diverse generation of new market professionals; expected outcomes include increased customers, market sales, consumption of local agricultural products. This project anticipates training 350 market professionals, cultivating 18 paid market interns, and engaging over 2 million californians through advertising.