Farmers' Market Discontinued

Farmers' Market Discontinued

By Alexis BlueUniversity Communications
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Visitors to the UA Farmers' Market can browse for fresh produce, gifts and more.
Visitors to the UA Farmers' Market can browse for fresh produce, gifts and more.

After three years of bringing fresh produce and other goods to the campus community, the Farmers' Market at The University of Arizona is closing up shop, due in part to funding shortfalls and low turnout from vendors and shoppers.

The market, which relocated from the UA Mall to Main Gate Square west of campus this past fall, has been discontinued indefinitely, said Gale Welter, Campus Health Service's nutrition services coordinator, who managed the weekly event.

Only three or four vendors attended the last market, held June 26, Welter said. In the past, the Friday markets saw an average of at least 12 vendors, Welter said. 

This was the first year the UA market – presented in partnership with the Marshall Foundation, the nonprofit organization that owns and operates most of the Main Gate property – attempted to stay open during the summer months, shifting its start time from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Dwindling resources across campus also prompted the decision to end the market, which has no designated permanent funding source, but rather secures money from campus units through various means, such as grants and fundraisers, Welter said.

It cost about $70,000 a year to put on the market, including labor, advertising and marketing, equipment upkeep and replacement, and volunteer appreciation and support costs, Welter said. 

She blamed low shopper turnout due to the economic slump and competition from other area markets, including a new Friday market at Broadway Plaza at Broadway and Country Club, for the decline in vendor interest in the campus market.

"It's depressing," Cherah Kmak, a financial service specialist in the UA's Financial Services Office, said of the market's demise.

Kmak said she attended the market nearly every week to grab a bite to eat and shop for fresh produce, honey and bee pollen – a natural allergy remedy that she learned about from one the vendors.

"It's different, it's stuff you don't necessarily see other places, and everyone was friendly and willing to let you try stuff," she said. 

In addition to low turnout and funds, management of the market also had become problematic, Welter said.

A health educator in Campus Health Service assumed management of the Farmers' Market in November but left the University shortly thereafter. Due to budget constraints the position has not been refilled, Welter said.

"We just don't have the internal resources," Welter said. "We shopped it out (to other units on campus) but no one has the extra people because they had to let people go. The University needs to get on better financial footing before someone says 'Let's use our limited resources to put on a farmers' market.' "

Welter, a clinical dietician, said the market was taking time away from her clinical hours and other outreach functions of her position.

"It was a fabulous idea but we never imagined how much time it would take," she said.

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