Meet Fredericksburg Farmers Market Manager Donna Leahy: A Q&A

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Friday, August 12th, 2011

This installment of Gut Check introduces you to Fredericksburg’s Market Manager, Donna Leahy. Although the Fredericksburg Farmers Market at Hurkamp Park has been going strong for half a decade, Leahy is the first to hold the position of Market Manager.

Leahy attended Mary Washington College (now the University of Mary Washington), majoring in historic preservation; as a result, she “fell in love with the [Fredericksburg] area.”  After working for some time in the historic preservation field at both the local and national levels, starting a family, and then returning to the University for a second degree in accounting, she was ready for a new challenge.

Through her husband’s involvement in the Buy Fresh Buy Local food movement and his volunteerism with the Spotsylvania Farmers Market, she became increasingly interested in “knowing where our food comes from.” She applied for the market manager position and assumed its duties this spring.

The Fredericksburg Farmers Market is unique as compared to other Northern Virginia markets in that it operates seven days a week. Currently, it is only on Saturdays that the market staffs its market manager booth at which customers can swipe their credit cards (Mastercard and Visa) or their SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) EBT cards in exchange for tokens to use as market currency. These tokens are treated as cash (customers receive change back and they don’t expire), and they can be used at the market any day of the week.  The market also gives a $10 matching bonus to SNAP recipients thanks to a grant from the Wholesome Wave Foundation.  

GC: What are some of the particular challenges you face in coordinating a daily market?

We don’t have as many vendors at our weekday market as we do our Saturday market — we have one reserved vendor, C & T Produce, that is at the market  Monday – Saturday, from 7:00 am – 2:00 pm — and other vendors come and go.  It is a challenge to build the weekday market, since many vendors are either working long hours at their farms during the week or they have full-time or part-time jobs. Either way, vendors work very hard to bring their products to market.  We are continually speaking with potential vendors to expand our weekday market and would love for our farmers market at Hurkamp Park to become a regular stop for consumers during the week, as it is becoming on the weekends.

In an effort to grow the weekday market, the Fredericksburg Farmers Market is a partner in applying for a USDA Farmers Market Promotion Program Grant.  For our portion of the grant, we are asking in part for funds to staff the market manager booth for a couple days during the week to offer tokens to credit card and SNAP customers.

GC: How would you describe your day-to-day duties as the market manager?

Saturdays, I staff the Market Manager booth at the Farmers Market and get feedback about how we can make the market a downtown destination.  Through continuously speaking with vendors and customers, I’ve come to learn about being an advocate both for the consumer and the vendor — it is a great relationship that the city can foster.

Customers often have questions about the products they see, how those crops are raised, what fertilizer or pesticides (if any) are used, etc.  I have visited most of the farms myself –I’m working to visit them all — and I find customers sometimes like to speak with me about the farms I have seen.  Vendors like to speak to customers because they really have a wealth of information they can share — how to prepare the products the customer might not be familiar with, how the customer can grow these products at home.

During the week, I work on marketing and promotion. I also work on outreach as well.  I have met with various committees in the Fredericksburg City Public School System and I am working with various organizations — the local Department of Social Services, the Moss Free Clinic, Dominion Day Services, Rappahannock Area Community Services Board, etc. –  to make sure our SNAP token program information is being disseminated.

GC: I know one of your long range goals for the Fredericksburg Farmers Market is improving access for SNAP benefit recipients. What measures are in process or are you contemplating to help open up the market to folks as a viable and affordable option in a city where the USDA has identified urban food deserts?

According to the 2009 [USDA's] County-Level Poverty Rates in Virginia report, the poverty rate for [the] city of Fredericksburg was 17.3%; for Spotsylvania County, 7.6%, and King George, 7%.  These are the areas we are trying to serve.  From 2007 to 2009, SNAP usage in Fredericksburg increased 43%, in Spotsylvania it increased 73%, and in King George, 63%.  With our SNAP program, we are trying to meet this increasing need. 

In addition to continuing our matching bonus program and expanding the program so that SNAP recipients may obtain tokens during the week, the Farmers Market Coalition (the coalition of the Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, and King George markets) is exploring other opportunities.  The King George market this season has offered a pilot program offering bus transportation for customers; one essential problem related to food deserts is a transportation problem — how can we help customers reach the markets?  Both the Spotsylvania and the King George markets are exploring the expansion of their markets (previously only available on Saturdays) to Wednesdays.  As I mentioned before, the Fredericksburg market is also applying for funding for staff to process SNAP charges during the weekday market.

GC: What are your other top two or three priorities as market manager for the upcoming year?

We would like to make the public aware of the amazing variety of fresh local food that is available at our markets every week, and would like to continue to expand our new SNAP/credit card programs.

So far, at the Fredericksburg market each month we have increased our SNAP and credit card sales significantly; from May to June we saw a 158% increase in SNAP usage and a 63% increase in credit card processing.  If we increase awareness, we not only provide a service for consumers, but increase vendor sales and help to grow the local farm economy.  We just had a very successful Family Table event this past Saturday, and one important purpose of this event was to remind consumers that the market is here from April – Thanksgiving; every week the farmers market is there, an event of its very own.

We would also like to continue to get feedback from vendors and customers about what they would like to see at the market next season.  We want to offer the public a diverse shopping experience and we would like vendors to be attracted to our market.  Expanding the weekday market is a priority for us in the coming season.

GC: Can you tell me about last Saturday’s food festival event and how it was conceived as a kick off to National Farmers Market Week/Virginia Farmer’s Market Week?

After all the hard work by the staff of the city’s Departments of Economic Development and Tourism and Parks, Recreation, and Public Facilities, we were very pleased with the turnout for the Family Table event. The food festival in Hurkamp Park (in the morning) and Market Square (in the afternoon) celebrated National Farmers Market week and the beginning of our local restaurant week.

Events at Hurkamp Park included farm to table activities from the Cobblestone Children’s Museum, and nationally known fruit and vegetable carver James Parker of Veggy Art. We expanded the farmers market, closing Prince Edward Street, and we had guest vendors, some of whom were requested by consumers I have spoken to over the course of the season. Papa Weaver Pork was there, selling their popular pork products; as was Sweet Valley Farm Dairy, with goat cheese. Southern Exposure Seed Exchange generously offered an heirloom tomato tasting. Local restaurants Kybecca [Wine Bar],  Foode, and Kenmore Inn offered very popular cooking demonstrations.

GC: What has been your favorite part of the market manager job so far?

It has been a pleasure for me to see how the SNAP matching bonus token program truly benefits local consumers.  As I work the SNAP/credit card terminal, I am directly assisting customers in acquiring fresh and nutritional food they might not have.  I see with my own eyes how much the bonus is appreciated and needed.

I have also been incredibly fortunate to get to know the vendors and to visit their farms.  I am profoundly impressed by how much knowledge they have, as well as how hard they work.  I have seen incredibly beautiful things on their farms, including peacocks, free range cattle and chickens, historic structures, beautiful vistas, and seemingly endless rows of greens, herbs, and strawberries. 

 

 

GC: I’ve been struck by how every market in the Northern Virginia area has a distinct character or personality. How would you best describe the unique charm of the Fredericksburg market for those who have never attended?

The Fredericksburg Farmers Market has a wonderful collection of vendors with a diversity of products for which many customers come back Saturday after Saturday.  But ours is not just a market where customers buy products and leave.  I’ve seen firsthand how relationships between the customers and vendors develop and deepen, how many shoppers come and hang out to spend time chatting with the vendors and other patrons.  Lasting relationships are created and cultivated at our market.

Fredericksburg Farmers Market at Hurkamp Park
(Prince Edward and George Streets)
Monday through Thursday, 7:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
Sunday, 12:30 p.m.-4:00 p.m.

August 7-13 is Virginia Farmer’s Market Week! Help the week end with a bang and hit a Saturday market while you are out and about this weekend. Happy Friday!

-Johnisha M. Levi

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