NRPA is excited to share the Local Farmers Market Promotion Toolkit for park and recreation agencies. This toolkit was designed with park and recreation professionals in mind, with the goal of supporting agencies as they work with local partners to promote farmers markets and increase equitable food access solutions.
We know that local park and recreation (P&R) agencies are optimal locations to advance local food systems through farmers markets. P&R agencies play an essential role in connecting under-resourced populations to fresh and healthy foods, as evidenced throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there are still challenges to this work, including limited knowledge, resources, and capacity to operating and expanding successful market opportunities.
Over the last three years, NRPA supported local agencies with funding through the USDA Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP) grant opportunity to design, pilot, and evaluate innovative community-driven strategies for market expansion that position P&R-based markets as intentional and equitable food access points that support COVID-19 recovery. Through on-the-ground implementation as well as two communities of practice, NRPA gleaned scalable strategies, lessons, and best practices to bring to the full field.
The Local Farmers Market Promotion Toolkit brings together strategies to promote local food systems through new resources:
Vendor Engagement Guide
- Vendor recruitment and retention is a recurring challenge faced by farmers markets throughout the country. We encourage park and recreation professionals who support farmers markets to use this guide of considerations, best practices, and market examples to develop a market plan for vendor engagement that is centered in equity, culturally responsive, and reflective of your community.
Market Engagement Guide
- A market engagement plan is focused on ensuring that community voices are represented and share power in decision-making about the types of programs, services, resources, and offerings available at your local farmers market. This guide walks you through five steps, including a plan template, for developing an advisory group of stakeholders to provide leadership for your farmers market and support market engagement efforts.
SNAP Utilization Guide
- Accepting food assistance benefits like SNAP/EBT is an important way for markets to increase community access to local food products by enrolling to accept and support these critical food assistance programs. This guide provides information on how to accept SNAP/EBT at your farmers market.
Supporting local food access strategies, like farmers markets, is a crucial way to advance community health and well-being. As you use these resources within your agency and market, share your successes and strategies with NRPA!
Maureen Neumann (she/her) is a senior program manager at NRPA.