About
Farmers Market Coalition (FMC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to supporting farmers market operators across the United States. Its mission is to strengthen farmers markets so they can serve as vital community assets and provide real income opportunities for farmers. FMC achieves this by supporting market operators, as well as regional farmers market networks and associations.
Farmers Market Coalition has three core goals:
- Farmers earn fair prices for the fruits of their labor by selling directly to consumers.
- Consumers gain access to fresh, nutritious, locally produced goods.
- Communities reclaim a vibrant “town square,” benefiting from increased foot traffic and stronger community connection.
FMC believes that farmers markets, and the organizations that manage and support them, benefit from being data-driven. However, FMC recognizes this approach must be accessible and reasonable given the many demands of market operation. Evaluation is critical for farmers markets for two primary reasons:
- It helps document and understand farmers market operations, enabling individual markets, market organizations, and the sector more broadly to learn, improve, and share best practices.
- It allows markets to measure the impact of markets on producers, vendors, consumers, and community. This is valuable for advocacy, fundraising, and in understanding how markets fulfill their missions.
For some, evaluation may feel overwhelming or seen as low priority. FMC’s approach is that good data collection is not only achievable, but can also be empowering. By identifying key information you want to collect (and why), choosing a limited number of meaningful metrics,making a plan, leveraging support, and being consistent over time, you can gather valuable evaluation data with minimal effort.
This site includes:
- A standardized question bank and step-by-step guides for building evaluation skills
- A searchable library of farmers market evaluation resources
Additionally, the FMC website has a toolkit for National Farmers Market Week to help market operators communicate results effectively, and the FMC General Resource Library has many examples of data graphics and reports shared by market operators.
This site is designed for farmers market operators and their supporters, providing the tools and resources needed to start or strengthen data collection efforts, and ultimately help champion farmers markets across the U.S. and beyond. These resources have been selected as the best available and easy to use..
Do you have a suggestion for an additional resource, or a question about FMC? Get in touch at www.farmersmarketcoalition.org.