2010 Market Season

We are really looking for some more volunteers to help us make 2010 a returning event. Excited vendors want to return. But we still need some help in the grant writing and planning stages. Sure seems silly to work this far ahead, but it’s not. Grants due mid January and beyond. We also learned last year that before we knew it the summer was here and the market was a reality.

If you are interested in helping, please let us know. We need your help. This bilingual market is one of a kind in Seattle.

UNTIL NEXT YEAR

Just because the market is over for the year 2009, doesn’t mean we will not keep telling you all the things happening behind the scenes to make this next years market even better. So make sure you check in every once in a while and see what we are up to.

Right now we are gathering an advisory board which is meeting often to write grants and make suggestions and gather feedback. Then we start moving forward because to make a market successful, it has to be year-round at least in the planning stages. So off we go running for the 2010 season with plans to try and make this event weekly, have cake walks, more music, more produce, more of what you want, and even perhaps hours that will help folks who work on Saturday.

And as always, bi-lingual, multi-cultural and local resident vendors are the focus.

And a huge thank you to everyone that helped make the market a success, to the City of Seattle for our grant and faith in us, to our fiscal sponsor, to our neighborhood association who gave us insurance,  C2C for helping with our co-op, our vendors who continued to show up even though maybe our numbers were small, and to you, who spent your hard earned cash supporting a true grassroots organization.

PLANNING STARTS FOR NEXT YEAR

The South Park Market on Wheels is going to be a great weekly bilingual market that is sustainable. We had our first meeting last night with a new group of excited folks who are coming together to start planning next years market now (an advisory board).

We haven’t even had our last market this year, but hats off is what we heard. When Luis Amado (a vendor and an advisory board member) polled folks about the market and it’s image and overall community impact, all votes came in with positive responses and very positive impact responses. The community is really coming together. It’s starting small but growing, and perhaps that is a good way to be sustainable.

One of the big comments have always been that we need more publicity. My budget has only been so much with grant money, so I am asking you one favor as a reader. Please if you will just make sure you tell at least one person about the market. Let’s spread the word in a grassroots fashion much like the entire market has been organized. And if you wanted to tell more than one, well, I sure wouldn’t be upset by that.

Suggestions we heard in the meeting last night were:

• Weekly in 2010
• Longer hours so folks who work on Saturdays can also shop
• more produce stands
• a monthly art market
• a cake walk and other community involved activities
• more music
• a flea market in a lot next door

We decided to also make sure that even if everyone in the room at the meeting can speak English, that we will continue to translate each meeting in both languages so that anyone who wishes to participate can feel comfortable. It makes our meetings a little longer but really speaks to what we are trying to accomplish in South Park.

Since our last market we have been asked by other markets how to get their diverse community involved in their own markets. Word on the street is that we are doing something right. The Market on Wheels meetings are the only real neighborhood meetings in South Park that are truly bilingual meetings that I know of. Hopefully that shows our community how dedicated we are to our entire community. And somewhere maybe in the mix some of us start learning a new language.

All in all a great new group of folks coming out to help facilitate that this market survives.

APPROXIMATELY 500 VISITORS

Opening Day was a success in our eyes. We did an unofficial count of visitors and figure we clicked in approximately 500 people who joined us for the day.

The day started early at 7:30 and we chalked out the parking lot for the booth spaces. Due to rain the day before this had to be last minute. But it all worked out and vendors started showing up at 8am to start setting up. The rain held off and the sun even came out at the end.

I think we learned a lot and I think the vendors did too. Now we will take that knowledge and figure out what to do to make next months market even better. The great thing about starting out a market slow like this is we get the chance to have some time in between to perfect it, try things another way and see. Then when you figure out your niche and what sells best and what doesn’t, you have a recipe for success and we all win.

I ate yummy enchiladas, roasted corn on the cob, jicama on a stick with sugar & chilies, tamales and ice cream popsicles. What a day. I took home cilantro, cherries, avocados, watercress, beets, onions, rice, bath salts and earrings. And on top of all that I met some great folks and neighbors. I put faces to names and enjoyed hearing about how each vendor did at the end of the day.

All in all a success I think. So join us on July 18th, the third Saturday, for our next market day. In the meantime, you can find a vendor on Friday early evening in the same Napoli’s Pizzeria parking lot with extra produce if you missed Saturday’s market or just want some more. Just one more way of continuing to serve South Park and Georgetown with healthy food options.

Fiscal Sponsor for 2009

We also have a new fiscal sponsor for the year. Work is being done to help this market be successful and other groups and organizations are starting to back us and support us. Next we look for some funding.