A look at how the Market fared despite the challenges that 2020 has thrown at us!
What a wild ride! The 2020 Farmers Market Season has been non-stop, relentless and complicated, but it has also been reassuring, resourceful and inspiring. We made it through countless challenges as a strong community dedicated to supporting each other. Despite so much change, the market was a smashing success, as was the Farm to Table fundraiser! And thanks to our team and our community, we have a lot to look forward to.
Overall, we didn’t see nearly the losses we anticipated this season. We also didn’t have a single COVID-related market closure and we only shut down once for smoke. We still received a whopping $15,000 in business sponsorships (down only 40% from 2019) which is incredible and truly shows how supportive this community is in times of need. We are so thankful for our generous sponsors!
I am still crunching some final numbers (reports are still coming in), but as I am writing this I know that vendors sold at least $102,200 worth of goods this season, even without any prepared food on site! Over 73% of those profits came from growers and producers, which is right on target. In 2019 vendors made $108,200 (not including prepared foods), so we were actually very close to a normal year’s sales this season! What’s even more inspiring is that our average sales per farmer were way up this season ($463/Farmer/Market in 2019 and $600/Farmer/Market in 2020) – which begs the question of what specific changes made these differences?!
I am really looking forward to diving into the data to see where and why vendors lost and gained income – with so many changes this season, we will have a lot of factors to analyze!
Speaking of changes, our community fundraising looked very different this season, but we still received an outstanding $11,000 in financial support from individuals and through our Farm to Table at Home fundraiser! It is such an honor to serve a community that is so committed to helping each other!
As I look forward to the winter and 2021, I am inspired by what we accomplished this season and motivated to give more and work harder to help the Market and this community grow and thrive.
I hope you have all taken a moment to fill out our Customer Survey, so that the LCFM team can progress in the service of the community next season! There is so much work to be done!
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Cali
Market Manager
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