Category: FMC

Webinar: Raise Money and Build Community with Engaging Online Fundraising

FMC | Funding and Grants | Market Start-up and Development | Webinars

July 29. 2020

Presentation slides

Panelists:
Caroline Fiore, Farm Aid Development Manager
Nora Chovanec, Texas Farmers Market Deputy Director

In this webinar host by the Farmers Market Coalition, Caroline Fiore, Development Manager at Farm Aid, will guide market leaders on a variety of techniques and strategies for online fundraising, including hosting effective and engaging online events. Community members are looking for ways to support local food systems and the essential services of farmers markets. Implementing online fundraising events and campaigns can be a great way to fund additional costs of PPE, market staff, and strengthen the financial sustainability of your market.

Participants will learn how they can engage with donors in their community, increase funding for their markets, and make giving online fun for everyone!

We’ll also be joined by Nora Chovanec of Texas Farmers Market, who will share her experience running a successful online fundraising campaign to cover increasing costs during the pandemic.

Market operators will leave the workshop with an understanding of how to raise funds to support their markets via a variety of online methods–just in time for National Farmers Market Week! The presentation will wrap up with an open discussion and Q&A.

Watch the Recording

Published July 29, 2020 Download Resource Webinar

WEBINAR: Attract Food Vendor Sales and Set Safety Expectations with an Easy to Build Social Media Plan

FMC | Promotion, Outreach, and Special Events | Webinars

In this webinar, Heidi Anderson from theFarmBoard will teaches market managers and leaders how to use a values based marketing strategy to attract market customers who visit more and spend more while honoring pandemic market modifications and safety precautions. Participants will be guided through a social media plan with a full set of customizable example posts.

Market operators will leave the workshop with an understanding of how to quickly customize the example plan to complete a full content calendar.  The presentation will wrap up with an open Q&A session.

Watch the recording

Download the accompanying resources

Published July 28, 2020 Webinar

Strength in Numbers: Leveraging Data and Technology for Nutrition Incentive Programs

Evaluation | FMC | Funding and Grants | SNAP/EBT and Nutrition Programs | Webinars

Presenter: Alysa Moore: Wholesome Wave Georgia

Do you want to use data to impress funders and show the impact of your region’s nutrition incentive program? Maybe you love the IDEA of data but don’t have an excess amount of time, effort, and money to pour into new data management systems. 

Collecting, storing, and analyzing quality data for nutrition incentive programs is a daunting initiative for many organizations, especially organizations that lack the time, money, and people power to do it well. Data doesn’t have to be intimidating! 

In this webinar, attendees will learn how one small nonprofit approaches data management using low-cost technology that simplifies collection and analysis of nutrition incentive program data. 

Wholesome Wave Georgia (WWG) is a small nonprofit that has been administering nutrition incentive programs in Georgia since 2009. In this webinar, WWG’s Program Manager, Alysa Moore will share how they’ve transitioned nutrition incentive data collection from cumbersome spreadsheets to an online, user-friendly database. Their use of new, low-cost software and tools has simplified program management and reporting for their small staff and the farmers markets, farms, and grocery outlets they work with. Learn how your organization can do the same. 

Attendees will learn why there is a need to move beyond spreadsheets, what tools and databases may be useful to program administrators and questions to ask when looking at data management solutions. Alysa will also walk through examples of how WWG uses Salesforce to manage data for several of their programs.

Click the image below for recording of the webinar.

Presentations and Q&A can be found here:

Published July 15, 2020 Webinar

Growing Your Grassroots: Employing Local Community Leaders for SNAP & Incentive Outreach

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) | FMC | Promotion, Outreach, and Special Events | SNAP/EBT and Nutrition Programs | Webinars

Presenter: Food Navigator and Fresh Link Ambassador programs

Interested in engaging community members with outreach, promotion, and education for your market’s nutrition incentive program? Experts will present on two different community outreach programs: FreshLink Ambassadors and Food Navigators that employ community members to spread the word about how to access fresh, healthy, locally grown food. 

FreshLink

FreshLink Ambassadors is a peer-to-peer marketing and outreach approach to spread the word about farmers’ markets to support the use of SNAP and nutrition incentives. Developed and evaluated through community-engaged research at Case Western Reserve University, Prevention Research Center for Healthy Neighborhoods in Cleveland, Ohio, the FreshLink Ambassador approach leverages social connections, trustworthiness, and capacity of community champions who raise awareness about and build social connections to farmers’ markets located in their neighborhoods. The FreshLink Ambassador Technical Assistance team now seeks to share learnings with individuals, organizations and communities interested in implementing this approach in their local context.  

Participants in this webinar can expect the following:

  • Learn more about the core components of the FreshLink Ambassador approach.
  • Understand the impact FreshLink Ambassadors has on individuals, communities, and farmers’ markets.
  • Hear testimonials from a former FreshLink Ambassador and Farmers’ Market Manager about their experiences and the benefits of this peer-to-peer outreach approach.

Food Navigators

The Michigan Farmers Market Association in collaboration with the Michigan Fitness Foundation created the Food Navigator program which operates in farmers markets that accept food assistance benefits and are located in underserved communities. Food Navigators work to increase access to fresh, affordable food and help shoppers eat healthy.

Click the image below for recording of the webinar.

Presentations and FAQ can be found here:

 

Published June 05, 2020

Farmers Market-Tested Sales Platforms for Shopper Pre-Orders Webinar

COVID-19 | Emergency Response | FMC | Management and Operations | Webinars

This webinar focused on market-level platforms (either a sales platform or through listing vendor sites on the market website) that allow shoppers to place pre-orders to then be picked up at either a drive-through or walk-through market where vendors are required to be on-site to hand off their goods. (In some cases, these markets may also be allowing sales for some walk-in customers and may also be handling SNAP sales at their booth.)

Market leaders who have been using systems using platforms such as Google Forms, Local Food Marketplace, LocalLine, SquareSpace, What’s Good among others will be presenting.

Panelists:

Darlene Wolnik
Training and Technical Assistance Director
Farmers Market Coalition

Ben Feldman
Executive Director
Farmers Market Coalition

Nelson Li
Market Manager
Metuchen Farmers Market, NJ

Erin Molnar
Director of Local Food Program
Countryside, OH

Rachel Beyer
Local Food Coordinator
City of Blooimington, IN

Leigh Sloss-Corra
Director of The Market at Pepper Place,  Birmingham, AL

Martha Archer
Executive Director of Mill City Farmers Market Minneapolis, MN

Jackie Hammond-Williams
Market Manager
Oregon City Farmers Market, OR

Watch the full recording online.

Q&A

Presentations

Published April 30, 2020 Download Resource Webinar

BYOD: The 2020 FNS EBT Equipment Grant Program

FMC | Webinars

Presenter: Amy Crone , Kate Fitzgerald, Eileen Emory

*BYOD stands for Bring Your Own Device which is the system that this round of grants will feature 

Did you know the USDA has an EBT Equipment Grant for farmers and farmers markets? The National Association of Farmers Market Nutrition Programs received this grant in October of 2019. Through their MarketLink program, they offer farm direct outlets an opportunity to accept SNAP/EBT, debit, and credit card payments from customers via wireless technology. Join us for this webinar as they discuss how to sign up to accept EBT at your site. Before registering, please review MarketLink’s FAQs and add in additional questions you have when you register.

This webinar also covered states who offer no-cost EBT machine programs.

Click the image below for recording of the webinar. You will have to enter your information to access:

Presentations and FAQ can be found here:

 

Published April 23, 2020 Download Resource

The Big Picture of SNAP/EBT Processing and Technology

FMC | SNAP/EBT and Nutrition Programs | Webinars

PresenterPeter Relich

Join FMC to learn more about the world of federal and state level EBT processing and technology. Expert Peter Relich will share a short history of the development of EBT, then walk through how EBT transaction processing works within FNS, at the state agencies, and for processors. The webinar will also include information on state SNAP contracts and how to collaborate with your state agency. With examples specific to farmers markets and other farm direct outlets, attendees will learn where to go when questions arise with their contract, processor, or grant.

Click the image below for recording of the webinar. You will have to enter your information to access:

 

Presentations and FAQ can be found here:

 

Published April 08, 2020 Download Resource Webinar

Webinar: Farmers Markets Physical Redesign for Covid-19 Mitigation

COVID-19 | Emergency Response | FMC | Webinars

Farmers market operators are among those leading for how local food is meeting this historic moment including “drive-thru” models, delayed entry, pre-bagged goods, new layouts and more. For this webinar, market operators shared how they actually implemented a new COVID-19 practice through the physical redesign of market spaces. It did not cover online platforms that some market leaders are using to build new, off-site purchasing systems; that topic will be covered in future webinars.


Panelists:

Darlene Wolnik
Training and Technical Assistance Director
Farmers Market Coalition

Ben Feldman
Executive Director
Farmers Market Coalition

David Kotsonas
Director of Operations for the St Paul Growers Association and St Paul Farmers Market, St. Paul, MN

Corrina Rhea Smith
Executive Director of Columbia Farmers Market, Columbia MO

Martha Archer
Executive Director of Mill City Farmers Market Minneapolis, MN

Leigh Sloss-Corra
Director of The Market at Pepper Place,  Birmingham, AL

Jess Joyce
Market Manager of Rochester Farmers Markets,  Rochester, MN

Christie Welch
Ohio State University Direct Marketing Specialist, OH

 

Watch the full recording of the webinar here.
Market operators should also fill out the survey with questions and comments about market redesign during the COVID-19 mitigation.
Published April 08, 2020 Download Resource Webinar