Friends of the Dane County Farmers' Market
was a non-profit organization founded in April 2003 to support the educational and outreach activities of the Dane County Farmers' Market.
Friday, March 30, 2012:
A Note of Gratitude from The Friends of the Dane County Farmers' Market
Dear Friends, In just a few weeks, the Friends of the Dane County Farmers Market will cease operations. We thank you for your past support and wish to share this news with you.
Our organization was developed to help folks understand and appreciate how "their food gets to their fork." And we saw lots of families and potted lots of tomato plants at The School on the Square.
Another important mission was to make fresh, locally produced foods accessible to all. To accomplish this, we began the FoodShare/EBT program. We offered a way, through Market Dollars,
for low-income families to use their FoodShare benefits for food products at the Dane County Farmers' Market.
The Madison area is a stronghold for the Local Food and for Slow Foods movement. Our farmers markets are robust, and we have a wide range of CSA's from which to choose.
The number of community gardens continues to increase throughout our neighborhoods, and many school children are receiving locally produced, healthy snacks.
The FoodShare/EBT (electronic benefits transfer) program started strong and has continued to grow. In our first year, the Market saw $5,000 of FoodShare business. In the second year,
that number grew to $17,000. In years three and four, we saw the number grow to just under $50,000!! All of this was accomplished with a limited budget for (very) part-time staff and
volunteers. Pretty amazing.
But, our organization is too small for such a large scale operation. Over the past several months we have worked with the Board of the Dane County Farmers' Market and the
Food Security and Gardens Division of the Community Action Coalition (CAC) to insure that area low-income families could continue to shop at the Market. And this will happen.
CAC will administer this program which will serve and benefit low-income families as well as continuing to bring business to local farmers.
Through it all, we have enjoyed good discussions of our shared values and goals, and have grown and benefitted from great, productive collaboration.
We have enjoyed and appreciated your involvement and financial support of these endeavors. We hope you will consider on-going support of area organizations involved in the Local Food movement,
and we invite your support of the Food Security Division at CAC as they continue to work to insure that all households have enough food, and that the food is fresh and nutritious.
Again, thank you for your support. I hope to see you at the Market!
Sincerely,
Kathy Sandefur
President, Friends of the Dane County Farmers Market
Friends of the Dane County Farmers Market 2011
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