SEED Wayne

4th Wednesday Farmers Market

Second Market Day--September 24th--Even More Successful than First!

For notes about the first market day, August 27, click here.

It's hard to believe, but the second pilot of the 4th Wednesday Farmers Market was even more successful than the first! More than 2,000 customers—twice the number on the first market day on August 27—stopped by and returned with bulging grocery bags on their arms and broad smiles on their faces.

After their experience with the first market when they ran out of product well before market-end, vendors came well prepared today. Despite this, many of our smaller vendors sold out as the day drew to a close.

SEED Wayne also added more vendors to the lineup at this second market. Fourteen vendors in all, including Kaltz and Sons and Holtz Family Farm, each of whom managed two stalls, and Grown in Detroit Cooperative, Earthworks Urban Farm, D-Town Farm, and Ridley and Sons, sold fruits, vegetables, herbs, honey, eggs, flowers, bread, and other prepared foods. Some even stocked varieties of tomatoes, onions, and potatoes rarely found in grocery stores.

Customers and vendors alike were satisfied with their experience at the market. Here are some email messages received by SEED Wayne coordinator, Kami Pothukuchi, from customers from Wayne State University and the midtown neighborhood. The messages are reproduced here with authors’ permission.

Dear Dr.Pothukuchi, Thank you and all the other people whose efforts sponsored the campus Farmers Market! My co-workers and I attended both 8/27 and 9/24 and we were so delighted and impressed with the marvelous produce and the well organized vendors! It means a lot to us to be able to buy local produce and to have such a convenient, reasonably priced resource like the farmers Market on campus. We look forward to next year's crop!
Kudos to you and SEED Wayne!
With sincere appreciation,
Carol Bannerman (WSU).

I want to commend you on a job well done. I went over to the Farmer's Market today and bought quite a bit of produce. Everything was fresh and the seller helpful. I hope that you decide to continue the market at least once a (month), a couple of times would even be better.
Kudos to you!!!! Thanks to everyone who put this together.
Sincerely,
Jeri Pajor (WSU)

The market today on Cass was wonderful. Thanks for the efforts to bring it to our community.
Aimee Ergas
Reuther Library (WSU)

I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for all your efforts in facilitating the wonderful 2008 farmers markets at WSU this past season! My manager was the first to alert me to your events, and other colleagues who visited your markets were equally excited by them. I was thrilled with the quality of the produce, and availability of locally-grown vegetables to our community. Will you be offering them again in 2009? I know my colleagues and I would look forward to the opportunity to shop again at such fine vendors. It was a delight to have access to healthy alternatives so close by. Would there be a chance that they might be held more frequently? It would be nice to have these farmers markets as a resource to look forward to, and to depend on.
Sincerely,
Jo Ann M. Poske,
Reference Librarian, Detroit Public Library.

More detailed customer surveys conducted at the market are currently being analyzed. However, a brief scan suggests that customers were very happy with the opportunity to buy fresh fruits and vegetables on campus during the workday; they enjoyed the social atmosphere of the outdoor market, and were generally satisfied with product prices and quality, and vendor service they received.

A major area of dissatisfaction voiced by customers was the infrequent—only monthly—offering of the market. Many customers urged us to offer it more frequently, with a weekly market being the most preferred option.

Thanks to overwhelming customer demand, SEED Wayne is exploring—even as this report is being written—options to offer the WSU market more frequently. We are working very hard to bring a “Wayne State Wednesday Farmers Market” in 2009.

SEED Wayne thanks its campus and community partners for the tremendous success of the two pilots of the 4th Wednesday Farmers Market at Wayne State University. Community partners: Earthworks Urban Farm, The Eastern Market Corporation, and Avalon International Breads, deserve our special thanks. We are also grateful to SEED Wayne’s campus partners, most particularly, WSU’s Division of Business Operations led by Associate Vice President Nabelah Ghareeb, and WSU’s Department of Public Safety led by Chief Tony Holt.

The 4th Wednesday Farmers Market is a project of SEED Wayne.

SEED Wayne Staff for 4th Wednesday Farmers Market: