Farmers market coordinator Connie Weathers said of the occasion: “We are very thankful to have been selected to receive AgSouth’s Think Outside the Store® farmers market grant. It will help us promote the market and encourage our community to “Know Your Farmer”. Through a series of blogs, we want our shoppers to learn where food comes from and encourage them to plan meals using local, fresh ingredients from the farmers vending at our market.”
According to AgSouth Farm Credit Marketing Director Christy Smith, “To be eligible to receive a grant, applicants had to provide a detailed marketing plan describing how they would use the grant funds to promote the market. We received many applications with some very creative marketing plans, and it was very hard for our selection committee to choose among the many excellent applications we received. Norcross Community Market was chosen because of its strategic and very specific marketing plan designed to increase public awareness of the market.”
She further explained that “Many farmers get their start selling to local markets. Our grant program was designed to support these young farmers by helping to create public awareness of how choosing to shop at your local farmers market benefits not only a community’s health, but also its economy, much in the same way our own patronage program [the cooperative’s profit sharing program] benefits not only our members, but the communities we serve. This year we were able to support farmers markets in 44 of the counties we serve. This is the seventh year we have been supporting our local markets, and we’re proud to continue that support.”
For more information on Norcross Community Market, please visit norcrosscommunitymarket.com.
