Written by Blanca Collins
- How did you first get involved in the Jackson Park Farmers Market and how has it been like becoming the manager?
I helped start it in 2000. Then in 2014, over coffee, two other neighborhood residents and I literally said, ‘We love our neighborhood. We could use some type of positive event. What might that be?’ And we landed on a farmer’s market. I thought, ‘How hard can that be?’ So that’s literally how we started. We also connected with our neighborhood association, which is a nonprofit.
- What are your day to day responsibilities?
The work really is year-round. Between December and March, it’s all of the reviewing and revising of all of our policies and procedures and forms and recruiting, sort of the working on what went well. So it’s all that kind of just processing and updating everything. And so there’s a lot of that, just a lot of conversations and planning. And then we invite vendors for the new year and identify our community partners.
- Do you work directly with Farm2Facts and how has it been helpful?
So it is primarily through the grant that we have. So Farm2Facts are the entity that is doing the data collection and analysis. They have expertise in this area. I, in no way, shape, or form, as well as our volunteer group don’t have the expertise and ability to do research, even to do our customer calls. We don’t have the capacity. We just don’t. Because they come in, they have a specific way of doing their customer calls. In our market, we have people coming in from all over the place. There is no single entry. They come in from multiple places. So they’re able to come in and spend the amount of time that’s needed to actually get counts. So that’s been really helpf
- Can you explain what the Southeast Wisconsin Farmers Market Collaborative is and why you wanted to get involved in it?
So the city runs a lot of markets. Ours is a small little nonprofit. So it affects how each of us operates, who we report to and what’s important, but being able to really share ideas is how we do things. We share resources. Like if somebody needs a vendor in a particular area, the rest of us can also make some referrals for that person. So it’s been really nice, just a supportive learning environment for all of us. It’s been really great and the fact that this will stay in place once the grant is done, we hope that we’ll be able to have some other market managers join us.
- What is the most rewarding part about your job?
I’m a social worker by trade and a long-time social work administrator. So the ability to be able to create something in the community where people can come together and work around health, like their wellness and their overall well-being. I love that kind of work. So the networking and the being able to just be creative in serving our community.
- What keeps you motivated to continue working in this field?
I really think a strong community is so important. The relationship piece cannot be underestimated. I don’t care how bad things get. If you have good relationships with people and trusting relationships, the rest comes. If something goes wrong, it’s a much different conversation if you trust each other than if you don’t know each other. I find it motivating. I love the people that are here.
- What are your goals for future markets?
So several things. Our goal is always to make sure that our customers are getting what they need. So it might be in terms of the vendors we have. We have a short list of types of vendors that we want to add. So there’s a recruitment piece. So we want to meet that goal for everybody. We also hope to continually use the data that we have and have conversations to learn more about who our customers are and what they need and what they want from the market. And I would say a big goal is to increase our diversity in our volunteer base and who’s at the market, so our musicians, our community partners, who they serve, and being able, I guess it’s just the diversity.
