Farmers’ Markets

“I Come Here Every Week”: Tools for Building Customer Loyalty at Farmers’ Markets
Customer traffic is essential to farmers’ market success. This tipsheet presents research by CISA into a variety of tools and techniques to build customer loyalty at farmers’ markets, and offers suggestions for utilizing them as successfully as possible.

Farmers’ Markets and Health Departments: Policies, Procedures, and Guidelines
CISA has developed a farmer-friendly guide to health regulations for farmers’ markets. This document is geared towards clearing up confusion about what is actually required by state and federal law, and laying out best practices that are used by local health departments that have been successful in guarding public health AND being friendly towards farms and farmers’ markets.

Selling to Everyone: Exploring your farmers’ market values
CISA has developed this guided exercise for farmers’ market managers, staff, and/or steering committee members. Working through this document will help you determine your market’s values, and explore how you execute them in engaging your community. Includes reflection exercises, case studies, key information on farmers’ markets, community outreach resources, and more. This guide provides examples of ways to make your market more inclusive and welcoming, and how they can improve the overall viability of your market.

Farmers’ Market Legal Toolkit
The Farmers Market Legal Toolkit includes legal resources, best practice recommendations, and case studies for market leaders on selecting and enhancing business structures, accepting SNAP benefits, and managing common risks. This Toolkit was developed by Vermont Law School in partnership with the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont and the Farmers Market Coalition, and was supported with funding from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Mass Farmers’ Markets
Mass Farmers’ Markets is a state-wide, non-profit organization dedicated to farmers’ markets, with information for shoppers, market managers, and vendors.

MDAR Farmers’ Market Resources
The Massachusetts Department of Ag Resources has compiled a list of resources for farmers or community members interested in starting farmers’ markets, including information on regulatory concerns, EBT/SNAP and promotion.

Resources for Vendors

Farmers’ Market Coalition
The Farmers’ Market Coalition, a national organization, has a great list of resources for farmers interested in selling at farmers’ markets, including information about pricing, SNAP, and marketing.