One Year of FMPP Success – 2017-18
Qualitative and Quantitative Data Overview
As part of our agreement with the USDA and because we enjoy sharing successes, this brief overview of the first year of the Farmers Market Promotion Program is here for your viewing.
New Partnerships Developed
2nd Harvest Food Bank of Northeast TN
First TN Human Resources Agency
*Both organizations will be helping us distribute EBT/SNAP information and materials.
Outreach – A short overview
The Farm Fresh Appalachia program site went online in early 2018. The online addition to the ARC&D website allows folks to browse area farmers markets with an easy to use map tool. Farm Tour updates and farm spotlights can be found on the Farm Fresh page as well.
ETSU Foodways Students – 25 students participated in data collection at the Johnson City Farmers Market
CSA Participants – Guests – 261
CSA Farms – 11
Farm Tour Guests – 200 total
Farm Tour Farms – 12 total
Radio Stations
WOLD and WMEV out of Southwest VA – 60,000 listeners per week
WETS – 50,000 listeners per week
Social Media Outreach –
Over 5,000 people reached between ARC&D and ASD
AFMA Participants – Managers from 20 regional markets are receiving programming updates, 6-10 attend AFMA meetings regularly
EBT/SNAP Info distribution to all Unicoi Co. school students – 2,500
EBT/SNAP promotional materials were distributed to all participating markets accepting EBT/SNAP benefits. Materials included road signs, posters, and post cards.
North East TN Tourism Association Outreach – 600,000 combined printed materials in the form of brochures and booklets, social media, email newsletters, website ads
TN Home & Farm Mag.- 650,000 distribution/online membership
Newspapers – Press Releases, Articles, and Ads
Numerous press releases, advertisements, and articles were published in the Bristol, Johnson City, and Kingsport newspapers in TN. In Virginia articles and press release ran in the Abingdon/Washington Co paper as well as the Smyth County paper. The most notable press coverage was of the Farm Tours with multiple articles running both before and after the event spotlighting area farms.
An advertisement also ran in the June 2018 issue of TriCities Health and Wellness Magazine.
WCYB – Representatives from ARC&D and ASD were interviewed on WCYB out of Bristol, VA. These interviews spotlighted EBT/SNAP use at Farmers Markets, the CSA Fairs, and the Farm Tours.
From our CSA Fair Farmers:
“We offered a Kingsport CSA in 2017 and didn’t have anyone sign up, despite all our advertising, but this year we had 3 full shares in Kingsport, and all of them found us through the CSA fair! We hope to expand our Kingsport membership significantly next year and will definitely turn out if there is another CSA fair.” Rebecca Holms of Pollinator Produce Partners
“We were able to attend the Bristol and Kingsport fairs and gained around half a dozen customers from doing so. That equates to about $1500 in net income for us. We’re able to fill all our spots every year, whether through online advertising or the fairs, but the folks that we meet at the fairs tend to be much more likely to participate for the whole season and to be return customers. Making that face to face connection is nice for us and the CSA participants.” August Trane of Willow Bend Farm
“We gained 9 or 10 CSA share participants as a result of you all. We also made some wholesale connections. We ended up with 75 CSA sign ups this year.” David Lay
**If you would like to join us in supporting local farms and food, we always welcome volunteers to help with events and data collection. Please email Rachel Wheeler, Farmers Market Promotion Program Coordinator at rachel@arcd.org.