Author: Joanna Coles
Planning Unit: Warren County CES
Major Program: Local Food Systems
Plan of Work: Local Food Systems
Outcome: Intermediate Outcome
The SoKY Marketplace, Warren County Fiscal Court, Warren County Cooperative Extension Office, and other community partners are working together to promote agriculturally related businesses, create jobs, improve access to healthy locally grown specialty commodities, and provide educational classes to strengthen the regional food economy of Southcentral Kentucky. These organizations have worked together to successfully launch a downtown weekend farmers market, weekday consignment farmers market, and a Community Kitchen and Culinary Incubator. The SoKY Marketplace is open 52 weeks of the year.
The refrigerator and freezer purchased allowed the SoKY Marketplace to store specialty crops and value-added items that need cooling or freezing to sustain freshness for its farmer's market consignment storefront. This equipment allowed the SoKY Marketplace to store and sell a variety of specialty crops that would have not been possible without these units. This resulted in additional sales for farmers and additional access for consumers.
The retail specialist began employment on February 1, 2018. The creation of this position allowed for the SoKY Marketplace to have an attendant for the Crop Shop on Tuesday, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 3 pm – 6 pm beginning with the grand opening on February 13, 2018. The retail specialist also acted as the main conduit between vendors and the Crop Shop. The creation of this storefront has increased market opportunities for farmers and accessibility for consumers and would not have been possible without the support for this position.
The Crop Shop continues to grow, adding 6 new vendors in 2019 to bring vendors who have sold items in this storefront to 31. The sales for 2019 increased from $2,089.77 in year one to $3,659.58 during year two, a 75% increase. The SoKY Marketplace staff continues to work to share information about the Crop Shop to increase customer traffic.
During the pandemic, the crop shop had to close to the public however the market manager and retail specialist offered a pickup and delivery service for Crop Shop items that added an additional service for vendors as well as the community.
The creation of the farmers market has increased access to locally grown specialty items and provided additional opportunities for producers to sell their products. The Community Kitchen and Culinary Incubator provides farmers and other value-added producers an opportunity to create their products in a commercial shared-use kitchen with the support of services from relevant agencies. The local and regional food systems have been positively impacted by the work of the SoKY Marketplace, Warren County Fiscal Court, and Warren County Cooperative Extension Office.
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