News & Updates

2018 Market Volunteer Opportunities

Posted on by E-G Market

Interested in volunteering at the Emerson-Garfield Farmers’ Market this season?

Our market is entirely volunteer-driven, which is why your participation could make the difference between something great and something amazing.

Here are the broad areas where we can use your volunteer assistance followed by a brief description of what’s involved. The commitment is flexible — there’s something for everyone and their busy schedules.

Bear in mind that there’s a how-to and existing resources for each of these areas, so you won’t be starting from scratch or going it alone. If something piques your interest, let us know and you’ll be given all the support you need to do it.

Scheduling musicians

Identify musicians who can perform each week at the market. Enter their contact info into a schedule. Ideally, be onsite during setup (2:30-3pm) to help them get them settled.

Vendor relations

Approach new vendors (typically farmers, bakers, ranchers, food trucks). Handle incoming applications. Make sure they’ve paid their fees and their questions are answered. Keep the process of application/payment/scheduling organized. We like to have about 25 vendors each week.

Social media

Post regularly on the market’s Facebook and Instagram pages with recipes, news, events, opportunities, photos, videos, etc. Create Facebook events each week to promote the market. Interact with vendors, customers, foodies, other markets on social media.

School market poster contest

This year it involves Garfield and Audubon Elementary. Get K-6 students to design market posters with the help of their art teachers, announcements in the Monday folders, etc. Collect and judge their submissions, notify the winners.

Print marketing

Get the market posters designed (maybe you know a graphic designer who can augment the school drawings?), printed and hung across town. Get market leaflets designed, printed and distributed.

Community partnerships/events

Got some ideas about fun community-centric activities you’d like to see? Use the market as a platform to put them into action! We like to involve churches, nonprofits, community centers, libraries, schools and other local organizations in the market. You would help identify and approach those organizations as well as plan and promote any special events, such as food truck rallies, our annual Craftwalk event, fun activities, themed market days, etc.

Cooking demos

Work with area chefs to hold cooking demonstrations using market ingredients about once per month.

Day-of volunteering

This means being onsite each Friday during the market season to help staff the market booth (info and payments), supervise the KERNEL kids’ activity, or set up and tear down. There’s already a place where you can sign up for individual shifts during the market season: http://bit.ly/EGFM-vols2018

Volunteer coordination and recruitment

Many hands make light work! If you can help bring more volunteers—family, friends, neighbors, classmates—into the fold, it means we can do bigger and better things with less individual effort. If someone wants to take the lead on organizing our volunteers, it would free core staff to concentrate on managerial stuff.

… so get in touch!

If one or more of those areas might be up your alley, or if you’d just like to learn more about what’s involved, just drop us a line and we’ll get back to you.

2018 Market Vendor Application Now Available!

Posted on by E-G Market

The 2018 market vendor application has been posted. As always, we’re welcoming a variety of growers, ranchers, bakers, and more to be a part of our market.

The fees are unchanged from last season. In other words, if you attend 90% of the markets (15 of 17), you’ll get up to half of your full-season fee of $250 back at the end of the season as a way of saying thanks for your consistency and loyalty.

You can easily apply online at http://bit.ly/EGFM-2018 or click here to download the PDF version of the application, which you can then print, fill out and mail.

Craftwalk 2017

Posted on by E-G Market

After taking a hiatus last year as the market transitioned to its new site, Craftwalk — our annual arts- and crafts-focused market — is returning this season. It’s scheduled for Friday, September 1.

What exactly happens during Craftwalk?

Well, every year we get phone calls and applications from way more arts and craft vendors than any single market can accommodate. For one market date in September we invite all of those artists and crafters out and make a special event of it.

On that day, these nonfood vendors form a huge ring along the sidewalk around the regularly scheduled farmers market.

Crafts + sidewalk = Craftwalk.

Typically Craftwalk vendors bring upcycled items, vintage goods, quilts, specialty clothing, knicknacks, soaps, jewelry, photographs, greeting cards, sculpture — you name it.

It’s a time when school’s starting and the weather is hinting that it’s about to turn colder, so Craftwalk is a good time to come browse for unique back-to-school goodies, small or large gifts, home décor, and a range of other items. Plus do some of your weekly food shopping, of course.

Admission is free for everyone, and the cost to participate as a vendor is just $10. To apply, we encourage you to use our free and easy online application form.

Questions? Call 255-3072 or send an e-mail to market@emersongarfield.org.

2017 Market Sponsorship Opportunities

Posted on by E-G Market

If you’re looking for ways to support our all-volunteer, community-oriented market besides, well, shopping, vending and volunteering, we’ve got some great—and very cost-effective—sponsorship opportunities this year in two categories.

Like last year, our full-season sponsorship wall is returning. This 10’x10′ banner hangs at the back of the central market canopy for the entire season. It breaks down into three tiers:

Tier 1: Blue ribbon – For $200, your logo shares eye-catching top billing on the sponsor wall. You can also supply us with plenty of take-home literature (e.g., business cards, flyers, brochures), which will remain on display at the booth’s info table throughout the season. Two spots available. All spoken for. Thanks to the North Monroe Business District and Gene Brake of Keller Williams Realty!

Tier 2: Grower – For just $100, your logo gets a central full-season spot on the sponsor wall. Not quite as large as the ones above, not quite as modest as the ones below. Plus your business cards will be displayed on the info table. Three spots available. Also all spoken for. Thanks to Mary L. Cayer CPA, Diamonds in the Ruff and Boulevard Mercantile!

Tier 3: Sower – For a mere $50, your logo will be displayed on the sponsor wall all season long at a size that says, “Grandiosity isn’t our thing, but you definitely should still check us out.” Four spots available. Also all gone. Thanks to Bellwether Brewing, MSD Irish Dance Academy, the West Central Community Center and the Spokane Edible Tree Project!

Sponsorship Tiers
2016 Banner

This year, we’re also doing something that have the potential to be a lot of fun: One-day sponsorships.

For a $250 donation, your business or organization will have the chance to “take over” the market on a date of your choice through branding, activities and outreach. This gives you a really great opportunity to connect face-to-face with potential clients or customers while taking advantage of our existing event framework with its own built-in draw.

Here are some ideas on how your organization might leverage this:

  • Advance ads in the local paper(s): “Join us for [Your Organization] Day at the Emerson-Garfield Farmers’ Market!”
  • Signage and banners provided by your organization and displayed across the market on the day of the event.
  • Flyers or door hangers promoting your organization’s day at the Emerson-Garfield Farmers’ Market, provided by you and distributed door to door with help from market volunteers.
  • Booking entertainment of your choice. This could be an employee with his or her own band or even something out of the ordinary, such as a magician or an Elvis impersonator to generate buzz.
  • A central outreach booth on the day of the event where you distribute print materials and promotional items — for example, discount coupons or branded tchotchkes.
  • A donation/fundraising drive or similar to add to the impact of the event.
  • Plugging into our cooking/gardening demos or our weekly popular KERNEL kids activity to create a theme or build excitement about the event.

All donations are used to cover essential market operational expenses, such as funding our weekly KERNEL kids activity, paying the market musicians, or our service fees for our point-of-sale devices. Donations are tax- deductible through our 501(c)3 partner organization, Project Hope Spokane.

No matter what kind of sponsorship you choose for your organization, you’ll also get plenty of shout-outs on our social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) throughout the season too.

So if you’re interested in supporting our grassroots market and benefitting from the promotion through one of these affordable sponsorship tiers, please send us an e-mail or give us a call at 255-3072.

2017 Market Vendor Application Now Available

Posted on by E-G Market

Our updated vendor application for 2017 is now live!

You can download it here to print and mail. Or you can simply fill out our easy online application form.

So what’s different this year? Well, we’ve restructured our fees to reward vendor loyalty and reliability.

The full-season rate is now $250 up front, but vendors who attend at least 90% of the markets (15 out of 17) will be refunded $100 at the end of the season, making the booth fee just $9 per market.

Plus there’s an even larger loyalty discount for full-season vendors who apply and pay in full on or before April 30, 2017. They will be refunded $125 for 90% attendance at the end of the season, making the booth fee just $7 per market. That’s about as close to free as we can feasibly get.

As we see it, everyone benefits from this arrangement. Both new and returning vendors have the potential to score an incredibly attractive rate and, ideally, can pass that affordability on to our patrons. And our patrons have the additional comfort and confidence of knowing that they can count on their favorite vendors to be there nearly every week. That reliability is what helps markets to thrive.

The per diem booth fee in 2017 is $20 for one-time or occasional vendors. If you’d like to attend multiple markets, we can work with you on part- or half-season discounts. Just note it on your application.

This year we’re partnering even more with other local farmers markets to pool information and serve as a vendor resource. So there’s now an option on the application to have your information shared with Fairwood Farmers Market, the Thursday Market at South Perry and the Hillyard Farmers Market. This doesn’t mean you’re applying to all those markets, just that they will have access to your contact information and details. That makes it easier for participating markets to reach out to vendors who might be able to fill a particular niche.

Thanks to these and other collaborative efforts, we’ve got some great stuff in the works for 2017.

In the meantime, please let us know if you have any questions. You can reach the market manager at market@emersongarfield.org or by calling 255-3072.