Since 1998, Sustainable Farms & Communities (SF&C) has been working toward the goal of establishing a Farmers Market Pavilion to house the Columbia Farmers Market. Currently, the market is held on an open lot behind the City of Columbia's Activity and Recreation Center (ARC), a multi-use public facility. With no roof, permanent restrooms, or other amenities, business at the market is highly dependent on weather conditions. In good conditions, the market can draw over 60 vendors and 5,000 shoppers, but wind, heat, and rain can take a toll.
The Farmers Market Pavilion will be a resource available to the entire community. Built through a public/private partnership, it will continue to house
the Columbia Farmers Market and be programmed by Columbia Parks &
Recreation whenever the market is not in session. The goal is to build a beautiful, roofed pavilion with adequate space for vendors and parking; ADA compliant restrooms; a small, fully conditioned Main Entrance Building that can be used as a meeting room; a certifiable kitchen; a small playground and a green space to contain demonstration gardens, community gardens and landscaping. The design will allow this space to be used for both the farmers market and larger community events such as weddings, reunions, conferences and festivals. The pavilion will benefit a wider spectrum of the community than a solely market-oriented structure. The Farmers Market Pavilion is a Public/Private partnership between the Columbia Farmers Market, Sustainable Farms & Communities, the City of Columbia, and other interested organizations and individuals.
The Farmers Market Pavilion will feature the following:
More Space for Vendors and Parking
The Columbia Farmers Market (CFM) has been growing dramatically over the last decade. We have more vendors than ever and our customer counts have been going up by close to twenty-five percent per year. We are bursting at the seams in our current configuration and space. Parking is also at a premium as the Activities and Recreation Center (ARC) continues to enjoy booming success. This project will provide enough space for 80 vendors under the pavilion and space for 20 more in the manner that the market currently operates. It will also provide 50 or more extra parking spaces for customers of the market.
Extended Market Season
The inclusion of a small, enclosed space and the ability to close off some of the stalls will make the extension of the market season much easier. Many vendors have products that are available year-round and many others have been extending their seasons using greenhouses, high-tunnels, variety selection and other techniques. Our vendors are slowly moving toward year-round production and the pavilion would help facilitate year-round sales.
Restrooms
We currently rely on the ARC and two port-a-potties for restrooms. The pavilion will have ADA compliant restrooms available in the pavilion. This is much more convenient and safer for customers and vendors.
Meeting Room
If you have ever scheduled a meeting in Columbia, you know that it can be hard to find space during certain times of the year. There never seems to be enough space for meetings. The Main Entrance Building will be a fully conditioned space that will be available for use by the community at times when the market is not open. It will have restrooms, a kitchen, chairs and tables and audio-visual equipment to enhance its value as another space for community groups and city government to use for meetings and classes.
Certified Kitchen
More and more farmers are realizing the potential of value-added agriculture to increase their income and make their farms more economically viable. One of the greatest limitations to this is access to a Columbia Health Department inspected kitchen. The kitchen in the Main Entrance Building will be available for farmers to use in creating delicious new products for their customers. This kitchen will also be an invaluable experiential education tool as it will allow classes on cooking, canning and food safety. Lastly, the kitchen will allow the space to be used for events such as weddings, family reunions, conferences and festivals which broadens its appeal and usefulness to the community.
Covered Patio and Benches
How many times at the market do you run into friends and neighbors and stand around talking for long periods of time? Happens pretty regularly, doesn’t it? Imagine being able to sit down on a bench or at a table under shade, even in the rain, to continue catching up with your friends. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a cool drink on the table, hot food coming to sate your hunger, music playing in the background? A café area just inside the entrance and benches conveniently placed around the market will make this dream a reality.
Playground
The market is a very popular place for families with young children. A playground within the market would allow parents to entertain their children while shopping for fresh, locally produced food or talking to other parents about issues important to families. The playground will also allow for educational opportunities for children and just plain fun.
Fountain
Kids, and many adults, love water. Hot days at the market will seem less oppressive with the presence of water features and offer children of all ages the opportunity to play in the water. We want this space to be fun for children so they associate good food with good fun.
Demonstration Gardens, Community Gardens, Landscaping and Green Space
A place so dependent on the importance of farms and gardens would seem incomplete without a good deal of green space. The site will include demonstration gardens, and possible community gardens, that can be used for experiential education for the Oakland Junior High School and the general public. Innovative ways to grow food and other plants, water-wise gardening, butterfly gardens are all possible uses of these display gardens. Landscaping will work to showcase native and other plants of merit and educate the community about techniques and materials for beautiful AND environmentally engaged gardening.
Educational Opportunities
Many of the features above will allow for educational opportunities for young and old alike. The Farmers Market Pavilion project is full of elements that will allow for experiential education. These include: cooking classes, landscaping tips, local history displays, math and science lessons, art classes in the garden, music lessons, a possible weather station, agility and coordination equipment on the playground and innovative construction technologies and materials.
What benefits does the Farmers Market Pavilion offer our community?
Business and Economic:
• Furthers the development of the neighboring wards by pairing the Farmers Market Pavilion with the Activities & Recreation Center. More local people will be able to shop at the market.
• Acts as a small business incubator allowing regular people with little access to capital the chance to start a micro-enterprise.
• Creates the multiplier effect of supporting over 80 local small businesses, whose incomes are spent in the local community, not shipped off to corporate headquarters in other states.
• Opens new opportunities. Expansion of market operations will allow some growers to expand production; thus enabling the jump to wholesale sales to locally-owned restaurants and food stores. Also creates more opportunities for new growers to start their businesses.
• Increases agri-tourism, as a permanent structure increases the curb appeal of the Market and expanded hours makes shopping more convenient for customers from farther away. Farmers markets are increasingly sought out by tourists as another aspect of a local experience.
• Increase sales tax revenues. Research from other markets has indicated the building of a permanent structure has increased sales at markets and thus increased sales tax revenue.
• Extends community members’ food budgets; as transportation costs have driven up the cost of food, farmers market prices are now often comparable or cheaper than grocery store prices.
Community:
• Nurtures true, broad-based community.
• Provides the rare opportunity for rural/urban interaction.
• Creates a focal point of social interaction.
• Provides exposure for other community groups such as the Central Missouri Food Bank and the Central Missouri Humane Society.
• Allows face-to-face interactions between grower and consumer.
• Fosters creation of community-supported farms and farm-supported communities.
• Encourages cooperative competition between vendors.
• Provides educational opportunities including agricultural and horticultural demonstrations on-site, display areas for information, meeting space for lectures and classes.
• Provides space for larger community gathers such as weddings, reunions, and festivals that might not currently fit in smaller pavilions elsewhere.
Health:
• Increases access of community members to fresh, locally produced food that is higher in vitamins, minerals and other important elements.
• Provides access to fresh, high-quality food for participants in the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture's Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program
• Lowers the likelihood that food has been treated with agricultural chemicals or been contaminated by disease causing organisms like E-coli or Salmonella.
Environmental:
• Provides opportunity for preservation of rural landscapes and family farms by supporting those businesses and ways of life.
• Offers better chance of wise use of non-renewable resources and lower chance of pollution through the smaller-scale, higher management-intensive agriculture.
• Lowers economic and environmental cost by shorter transport distance for products.
What about a downtown market?
Some people are interested in having the market downtown. We love downtown but see no place large enough to accommodate the size of our market. At its current location, the market is thriving and is centrally located to a wide swath of Columbia's residential neighborhoods. An added benefit is that this is our historical home and a connection to the agricultural history of Boone County as the former location of the Boone County Fairgrounds. We also have an agreement with the City of Columbia for this location, a pavilion designed specifically for this location, and are in the midst of fundraising to build this pavilion. Once we have finished this project, we are open to a satellite market in a downtown location.
Why are there two farmers markets?
The process of growth often leads to growing pains and disagreements, and this happened to our market. Years ago, the market split in two and we worked very hard to ensure the survival and growth of the original Columbia Farmers Market. We now have more vendors than when the split happened and our average customer count has risen from just over 2,000 at the time of the split to well over 4,000 today. Many of the vendors who left have come back and we remain completely open to any of the remaining vendors coming home.
Should there be government support for private businesses?
This project is a Public/Private partnership, with most of the fundraising coming from private donors and grants. The current agreement with the city allows for the pavilion to be used as a public space whenever the market is not in session, something that would not be present in a purely private enterpise. Moreover, we believe that the market is both a place of community and a place of commerce. Anyone who has been to the market has experienced the festival atmosphere with local musicians and non-profits complementing the locally produced foods and other goods. Neighbors and friends stop and catch up on what is going on in their lives, their community, and their world. The vendors of the market contribute hundreds of pounds of produce to the Central Missouri Food Bank every week, and are an integral part of the larger culture in mid-Missouri. For these reasons, we belive this project is an appropriate level of cooperation between all entities.
Will this change the character of the market?
Like many in the community, we believe the market is great the way it is; but we know it can be even better. A recent rainy Saturday reduced customer attendance by more than 75%. That means that a lot of vendors lost a lot of money but, more importantly, it means that a lot of people ate a lot less fresh, locally produced foods and a lot of conversations and contacts between members of our community did not take place. The market will continue to have the character that we all love but vendors will not have to worry about temporary shelters, we will have real, accessible toilets, more possible uses of the space by the community, more meeting rooms and a certifiable kitchen for use by both farmers and the wider community. It will be the same as it always has been, only better.
What will the pavilion be like?
What we are building is not a fully enclosed building that will shut us off from those wonderful spring and fall days. We are building a pavilion that will allow light and air to flow but protect us all from hot sun and cold rain. What we want is an extremely well built structure using sustainable techniques and materials that looks beautiful, functions well and is easy to take care of for years to come. There will be some space that is enclosed for the certifiable kitchen and restrooms. This will increase the multi-use potential of the building and extend the season of the market.
What will it cost?
We want to build a pavilion that is beautiful, fits with the character of the other buildings on the site, is extremely low maintenance and high functioning and which demonstrates sustainability and environmental responsibility. We want this structure to be a Healthy, Sustainable Lifestyles Center. We want to use techniques and materials that members of the community can examine and include in their own homes and businesses to save them money and save energy and water. This means that it will cost more than a pole barn or pre-fabricated building. We do this not out of extravagance but out of a commitment to the long-term character of our community.
