Melvindale Farmer's Market

Melvindale Farmers Market

Melvindale Thrive Initiative is working to re-establish a dependable community farmers market in Melvindale for the 2027 season. The goal is to create more than a place to shop. The market is being designed as a community food-access program that increases access to fresh and nutritious foods, supports farmers and local food producers, provides nutrition and gardening education, improves access to food-assistance programs, and creates an accessible, welcoming gathering place for residents. MTI’s planning documents call for approximately 20 market dates between May and September 2027. 

The market is being developed under Pillar 11 — Food Security, Nutrition, Farmers Market & Local Food System. Michelle Stone serves as Farmers Market Coordinator and is responsible for helping plan, develop, organize, document, and operate the market. Her responsibilities include vendor recruitment and communication, market-day organization, food-safety and licensing documentation, SNAP/EBT readiness, Double Up Food Bucks and Senior Project Fresh coordination where available, senior access, transportation planning, emergency procedures, outreach, volunteer coordination, and maintaining the Farmers Market Manager Binder and operating records. Jennifer Justice remains responsible for organizational oversight, major funding applications, and approval of significant market decisions. 

Our Goals

The market’s major goals are to increase access to fresh produce and healthy food; provide a dependable sales opportunity for farmers, growers, food producers, and other approved vendors; connect lower-income households with food-access resources; provide nutrition, gardening, and healthy-food education; improve access for seniors and residents with disabilities; reach Melvindale’s culturally and linguistically diverse population; and build a first-year market model that can continue and improve in future seasons. MTI also intends to pursue USDA SNAP/EBT authorization so eligible customers can use Michigan Bridge Card benefits at the market. If authorization is obtained, the organization plans to pursue programs such as Double Up Food Bucks and to coordinate with participating farmers and local partners regarding Senior Project Fresh. Outreach and access planning includes the Melvindale Senior Center, Coogan Terrace, seniors, residents with disabilities, lower-income households, and people with limited transportation.  

How We Will Measure Success

We are not planning to judge the Farmers Market simply by whether it opens. MTI has established measurable targets and will track results throughout the season.

• Market operation: complete site, compliance, equipment, and opening-readiness work by April 30, 2027 and operate approximately 20 market dates from May through September.

• Vendors: build from the existing pool of approximately 35 prospective vendors, open with at least 20 participating vendors, and work toward approximately 30 active vendors by September.

• Customer participation: begin with a target of approximately 50 customer visits per market and work toward approximately 200 visits per market by September.

• Food access: submit the USDA SNAP/EBT retailer application, document authorization status, and, if approved, track EBT activity and participation in available nutrition-incentive programs.

• Education: provide nutrition, gardening, food-growing, or healthy-food education at at least 10 market dates.

• Accessibility: establish senior, disability, transportation, and access strategies before opening and document use of accommodations and transportation supports.

• Outreach: begin promotion at least eight weeks before opening and use social media, printed materials, community partners, local businesses, vendor cross-promotion, and Arabic- and Spanish-language outreach where appropriate.

• Vendor and customer feedback: collect short voluntary feedback about products, market organization, customer traffic, food access, barriers, and improvements for the next season. 

Michelle will maintain records including vendor applications and attendance, customer counts, food-access participation, outreach activities, volunteer hours, educational programming, accessibility efforts, incidents, and partner involvement. These records will be used for Board updates, grant reporting, future funding requests, and the season-end evaluation.

By October 31, 2027, MTI plans to compare the actual results with the established goals, review customer and vendor feedback, identify what worked and what needs improvement, and use the findings to strengthen the 2028 market season.

And yes, this is also the project you built major funding packages around. One detailed package requested $20,000 for reusable market infrastructure, outreach, site and compliance costs, sanitation, safety, nutrition programming, SNAP/EBT systems, accessibility/transportation, and market coordination.