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Marketing the Lake Region Farmer’s Market

May 09, 2011 - Windham– Lakes Region Farmers' Market manager Karen Harter is on a mission to make local produce available to the masses.


Like a seed beginning to blossom, Harter has been busy this winter working with state and local officials creating new signage, a new logo, and broadening the potential customer base by opening the market to food stamps.


The effort has a two-fold purpose, Harter said. The wider the net, she figures, the more people will shop at the market and the more profit farmers will take home. And the more people use the local food producers found at the market, the healthier local people become, which in an area where 70 percent of the population is overweight is a win-win for farmers and customers alike.


"We're trying to make people aware of the local farming community and make people realize how much better locally grown produce is compared to what you can get in local food stores," said Harter, a Baldwin-based landscaper and a former New York City stock analyst who moved to Maine to escape the rat race.


Harter took over the helm of the Windham-based farmers market two years ago. The market meets each Saturday morning from 8 a.m. to noon May through October in the parking lot of North Windham's Manchester Elementary School. It opens this Saturday.


Harter's easy-going demeanor conceals a zeal and determination to build the market into a successful venture, not only for the farmers who rely on the revenue, but for the customers who benefit nutritionally with locally grown meats and vegetables.


To these ends, Harter is trying to drive publicity and open the market to additional customers. In the process, she is aiming to defeat the common misconception, Harter said, that farmers' markets peddle products that cost too much for the average person.


"Food is getting very expensive everywhere because of gas prices," she said. "Our prices tend to be in line with supermarket prices."


Opening up


A big untapped market for farmers markets is the poor and lower middle class, which tend to eat food high in calories and low in cost primarily for cost factors. Harter, through a new advertising campaign, is hoping to convey to those people that the farmers' market can be an affordable, healthier alternative that gives more bang for the buck.


"We're trying to get people to buy locally and taste the difference between fresh food and what you get at the grocery store," she said. "That's what it all comes down to."


In an effort to open the farmers market to all economic strata, Harter said the market is beginning to accept food stamps through the state's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The market has also been certified to accept WIC (Women and Infant and Children's Nutrition Program) recipients.


Harter explained that vendors at the market will also "match" SNAP recipients' purchases as well, which is an even better deal for customers.


"If someone on food stamps spends $10, they can get $20 worth of vegetables, meats, dairy, breads, or plants that produces vegetables," she said. "That's a deal and it's a great program which we hope will draw a lot of interest."


And according to statistics, food stamp usage in the area is significant, and could provide a needed boost to farmers' market sales.


According to Tracy Weber, a consultant with the People's Regional Opportunity Program's Communities Putting Prevention to Work, 2,140 of Windham's 17,000 residents received food stamp assistance in March 2011. SNAP recipients usually include the elderly and single mothers, Weber explained. That number is up more than 10 percent from May 2010, when 1,918 people were receiving food stamps. The WIC program in Windham had 143 enrolled in May 2010, the most recent available data.


Food stamps used to come in bill form and could be exchanged at most food stores. Since 2002, the bills have been replaced with EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfer) cards, which work and appear similar to debit cards. Weber said farmers markets' barrier to accepting EBT cards has been the requisite handheld EBT terminal, which looks like a credit card machine and costs between $650 and $1,000, a sizeable investment for a local farmers' market, she said.


However, PROP is making the terminals available to farmers markets this year after receiving a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture. The grant also covers markets' wireless service fees and transaction fees.


"It's needed," said Weber concerning SNAP and WIC recipients' access to farmers markets. "All people need access to fresh food, and local farmers need the business."


Ads up


Now that 2,000 more people in Windham alone - not to mention the dozen neighboring towns the Lakes Region Farmers' Market attracts - qualify to shop for locally grown meats and vegetables, the next step for Harter is making sure they know the market exists.


That's where advertising comes in.


In past years, the market had a sign posted at the entrance to Manchester Elementary School. This year, that sign has gotten a redesign by local printer Kelly Mank, owner of Time4Printing in North Windham. Mank said she has "given it a bit more pep" by adding more color to the large banners. Mank also has redesigned brochures and fliers that will be distributed.


And Harter is excited about a new approach that she hopes will expand the advertising reach even more: yard signs that people can place on their lawns much like election signs.


People who agree to become "Friends of the Market" are given a yard sign and receive 10 percent off all purchases they make at the farmers market. Mank has made 20 of these lawn signs so far.


"You notice all these signs during campaigns at the rotary, major road crossings, everywhere," Harter said. "So I was like, we should do something like that. But there are signage issues and you can't just put a sign wherever you want. But people can elect to put signs in their yard, and we're offering them an incentive to do so. So we're hopeful that will also help get their word out."


The town of Windham has chipped in as well. Tom Bartell, the town's economic development director, said for the last few years, his department has donated space in local advertising outlets mentioning the farmers market.


"It helps attract visitors and we want people to know we offer a farmers market every Saturday in North Windham," Bartell said.


Harter said the efforts have cost the farmers market "zero," with the town paying for signage, Time4 Printing's Mank designing at no charge, and PROP donating money as well as someone to oversee all purchases for SNAP and WIC recipients.


"We have just hired someone who is going to help up with the EBT transactions," Harter said. "So we're good to go, ready to open on Saturday. Can't wait."


John Balentine, Lake Region Weekly, May 2011


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