Market Match Annual
Face to Face Meeting
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On April 12, 2022, over 50 Market Match partners convened virtually to hear Market Match program updates from Heidi Kleiner, Program Manager and to connect with each other. Market Match added 9 partners and experienced a 40% growth in new customers in 2021.
Market Match partners from all over California met in large group and breakout group discussions to share experiences, pain points, and successes regarding best practices in bookkeeping, scrip practices, vendor training, and liability, etc. In addition, participants networked based on their market customer size and met to discuss their market practices for diversity, equity, and inclusion: de-escalation training, accessibility challenges, and community partnerships including engaging with local schools and high school interns, partnering with local chefs for at-market demos, and booth fee waivers for nonprofit orgs and other community partners. Ben Feldman, Executive Director of Farmers Market Coalition (FMC), also shared updates from FMC including what's coming with the 2023 Farm Bill and FMC's focus on SNAP-EBT, Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program, Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP), and Local Agriculture Marketing Program (LAMP).
The Annual Face to Face Meeting is one of the best ways that Market Match partners connect with each other and stay current with ideas and resources for their programs.
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The Anti-Racist Toolkit is Here! |
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The Anti-Racist Farmers Market Toolkit, funded and supported by the Farmers Market Coalition, is the culmination of over a year of discussions, visioning, lived experiences and expertise of a work group of Black food system leaders and market managers, including Sagdrina Jalal, Lead Technical Advisor and Facilitator and Nedra Deadwyler, Lead Researcher. This toolkit addresses a gap and a need for tailored anti-racist tools for farmers’ markets to create more equitable spaces for Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC).
Anti-racism is an active daily practice that consists of many incremental steps to build meaningful change away from dominant white supremacy culture. The Anti-Racist Toolkit aims to help farmers’ market managers progress towards becoming anti-racist managers of anti-racist markets. The toolkit includes strategies and processes for examining existing policies, practices, and procedures at market and mapping out a path to change and growth opportunities for BIPOC vendors. The Anti-Racist toolkit includes sections on how to identify tools and metrics for measuring change at farmers’ markets in addition to a bounty of resources per section and a glossary. The Farmers' Market Access and Equity team highly recommends this toolkit in the journey of examining your market’s existing mission and alignment to creating a space of belonging for all.
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CA Small Farms Conference |
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The 34th California Small Farms Conference invited farmers, ranchers, and local food system advocates to over 50 online workshops that revolved around the theme of Agriculture at a Human Scale. Industry professionals presented topics like land conservation & equity, indigenous food ways, scaling up healthy soil practices, farming through wildfire season, and inspection preparedness.
Food and Farming and Farmers’ Market Access and Equity led a Market Manager Day of Learning, with a keynote address by Erin Tormey, farmer/proprietor of Farm Fatales, the founder/manager of Coastside Farmers’ Markets, and the founder of The HEAL Project (Health, Environment, Agricultural Literacy). The Day of Learning engaged market managers from all over the state in discussion of finances and data tracking, adopting and operating EBT at markets, and social media promotional strategies. If you missed the California Small Farms conference, head over to Youtube for the Farmers seminar series and the Farmers’ Market series.
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2022 Market Match RFA Update |
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Market Match is a grant-funded program and unfortunately our funds this year are tighter due to pandemic related program growth. We are not able to bring on new Market Match partners in 2022. We hope to have more flexibility in our funds in the future! If you would like to be added to the mailing list for our next Request for Applications, please email marketmatch@ecologycenter.org.
If you are interested in strategy or starting a privately-funded CalFresh or SNAP-matching incentive program at your farmers’ market, please reach out to us at marketmatch@ecologycenter.org.
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Welcome Our New Coordinators! |
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Farmers’ Market Access and Equity is excited to welcome two new coordinators to the team: Frankie Wong and Lauren Barnett. Frankie is a San Francisco native and comes to the Ecology Center with over five years of nonprofit experience in youth advocacy and cultural preservation. After working at other Bay Area nonprofits in administrative capacities, Lauren is excited to join the team to run Market Match, the largest federal nutrition incentive program in California! |
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Farmers' Market Access and Equity Program | Ecology Center
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FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA |
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