Download a Free Press Release Template

Fill out this short form to receive a FREE Press Release template from Taste the Local Difference. The template will provide you with form, structure and content ideas to customize your own press release. Remember, these are great tools for traditional press, but can also be used more broadly with third-party organizations that have an audience you want to reach to share your message.

Download a Free Content Calendar

Fill out this form for a free content calendar template created just for local food businesses by Taste the Local Difference. Use it to keep yourself organized, strategic and efficient. Edit the Content Themes or Channels available in the Dropdowns tab of the workbook.

Farmer to Farmer eCommerce Platforms Report

This guide to digital sales platforms for CSAs from the CSA Innovation Network lists and compares sales platforms by feature and offers a list of additional resources on ecommerce for CSAs.

Project for Public Spaces Case for Healthy Places Report

This report from Project for Public Spaces highlights positive impacts of public spaces, and includes case studies around the US (including some farmers markets). It may be helpful in thinking about marketing messages and how to make the case for your farmers market.

Digital Marketing for Any Budget

This presentation by Laura Ludka for Fair Food Network’s nutrition incentive program– Double Up Food Bucks– walks through how to maximize digital strategies even with a low or no budget.

MarketShare Mystery Shopping Form

This Mystery Shopping form, from MarketUmbrella, can be used at farmers markets the way retail companies send mystery shoppers to assess their experience. This form can be used or adapted for other markets.

Communications Planning Made Easy with Values-Based Marketing

This Farmers Market Coalition workbook is a fillable template to think about your target customers, what they value, and how to lay out a communications plan that will reach them.

Farmers markets as a strategy for improving food environments pp 54-60

When designed effectively, supported by knowledge and an
understanding of the food-environment concept, government
policy and fiscal measures can positively influence what food
is available to consumers and lead to healthier dietary choices.
The food-environment concept, for example, has been crucial
to understanding and tackling food insecurity and food apartheid, as
described in this chapter.

EBT Point of Sale Device: Categories Overview

EBT Point of Sale Device Category Overview

This document will help you familiarize yourself with the categories of devices available – wired, wireless, and mobile, and help you start your search for the right device based on your cellular connectivity needs. This list is not exhaustive, nor is it a recommendation – these devices are examples of what we see commonly occurring in the Market and Farm Stand community.

Please refer to our Market Discovery Process to dive deeper into factors that may influence your technology choice. If you are seeking free or low cost EBT equipment, there are a couple of options. First, several states offer Free Wireless EBT Equipment to eligible markets and farmers — refer to our nationwide state-by-state guide for more information on what your state’s program offers. Marketlink also offers free equipment for eligible markets and farmers, and more information can be found here. Remember, choosing the technology that works for your market before looking at cost as a sole decision factor is vital to your market’s EBT program.

If you’d like to share your market’s device or insights, please reach out to Katie@farmersmarketcoalition.org.

Seven Common Mistakes Markets Make When Choosing EBT Technology

Seven Common Mistakes Markets Make when Choosing EBT Technology

Farmers markets around the country have been moving towards accepting additional currencies like SNAP benefits in order to make farm-direct food accessible to all shoppers. However, the nature of farmers markets and federal nutrition benefit programs requires that market operators have special equipment – EBT devices – in order to accept these benefits efficiently.

Many farmers market operators pick an EBT point of sale device without knowing exactly what challenges to prepare for. By now, market managers across the country have learned a lot of lessons the hard way — as a community, sharing this collective wisdom can prevent costly mistakes from affecting your market’s operations and finances on the road to implementing a food access program. This list isn’t comprehensive, nor in any particular order, but it does identify some common issues that we’ve seen market operators struggle with over the years.