By Olivia Nygaard
Beyond the crisp air and colorful leaves, fall offers more than just a change in scenery. This season provides the perfect chance for reflection, planning, and leveraging your market’s success to influence local policy. For market managers, autumn represents an opportunity to turn a year’s worth of hard work into meaningful advocacy. Meanwhile, the stories, numbers, and community connections collected all season can strengthen relationships with local officials and secure lasting support for your market.
At Farm2Facts, we believe that data is most powerful when it drives real change. As you wrap up your market year, your collected metrics can do more than fill out a report. They can help shape local policy and funding decisions that keep your market thriving season after season.
Harvesting the Power of Your Data
Your market’s data tells a story worth sharing. Attendance counts, vendor sales, SNAP redemptions, and local spending metrics can transform casual conversations with policymakers into compelling evidence of community benefit, for instance.
Instead of saying, “Our market supports local farmers,” imagine showing that 70% of your vendors live within 30 miles, or that SNAP transactions increased by 20% this year. These numbers, gathered and visualized through Farm2Facts, help paint a clear picture of your market’s economic and social value.
Moreover, pair those metrics with human stories, like a vendor who expanded production thanks to steady market sales, and you’ve got a message that resonates both emotionally and politically.
Inviting Policymakers to the Table
Fall markets are also a wonderful opportunity to bring local officials into your community space. Invite city council members, county board representatives, or local food policy councils to visit your harvest market or end-of-season celebration. Seeing firsthand how vendors, customers, and volunteers come together can turn abstract data into lived experience.
To seek deeper partnerships, even small gestures can open doors for ongoing dialogue. Share a one-page Farm2Facts summary or invite an official to open a fall event. Advocacy doesn’t always start with a formal proposal. Sometimes, it begins with a shared cup of apple cider and a conversation about local food.
Planting Seeds for Future Support
Typically, advocacy isn’t just about asking for funding, it’s about building partnerships rooted in trust, transparency, and shared goals. When policymakers understand your market’s impact, they’re more likely to champion policies that expand food access programs, improve market infrastructure, and strengthen local economies.
In preparation, for the quieter months, use this time to review your Farm2Facts reports, gather photos and testimonials, and reflect on the outcomes you want to highlight. Insights you’ve cultivated all season can become the foundation for next year’s advocacy, and the next chapter of your market’s local policy impact.
