Move Stouffville farm market to Saturdays: council

YorkRegion.com
Nov. 20, 2015
Sandra Bolan

The Downtown Stouffville Farmers’ Market may move to Memorial Park and operate on Saturdays.

Councillors unanimously agreed the seven-year-old market should be moved from Thursday afternoon to Saturday, but the location was still up for discussion. Ward 1 Councillor Ken Ferdinands was absent.

A report on the feasibility of a Saturday market and potential locations is expected to come back to council.

“Without that report we’re just throwing hatchets at the moon and thinking we’re going to hit it,” Ward 5 Councillor Iain Lovatt said at Tuesday’s council meeting.

Among the locations up for consideration is Civic Square, which is in front of the Lebovic Centre for Arts and Entertainment – Nineteen on the Park. Another location is by the skateboard park in Memorial Park.

Due to the anticipated leisure centre/library expansion construction getting underway next year, the market may not be able to go to that specific location, but a place for it within Memorial Park could be found, according to Rob Raycroft, director of leisure and community services for the Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville.

This past season the market had about five full-season vendors and another nine seasonal/part-time ones, according to the report. Roughly 150 people a week visited the market, which operated on Thursdays from 2 to 7 p.m. in the parking lot of 6240 Main St. from May to October.

“There’s nobody coming,” said Councillor Rob Hargrave.

“This was set up for failure from Day 1,” he said.

In 2014, the market moved from Park Drive to Main Street, which provided greater visibility “but the market continues to struggle with maintaining community support,” according to the report. Recruiting and keeping vendors has also proven to be challenging.

The new location helped increase sales and attendance but “it appears the market continues to lose ‘farmers’ and offers more non-farm items than produce,” the report stated.

“Farmers’ markets in general are starting to peter out a little bit,” Anna Rose, the town’s downtown co-ordinator told council. She is also in charge of the market.

Part of the reason why markets are fading away is trust and competition, but also because farmers are finding it’s more profitable to open stands on their own property.

Another issue in Stouffville is where the vendors get their food from. In 2011, the rules were changed to allow all Ontario grown/produced products, versus the original mandate of items having to be from within a 100-mile radius.

“Consumers are increasingly becoming more aware that some markets/vendors are re-selling food from the Ontario Food Terminal. This makes the consumer question the difference between farmers’ markets and shopping at the local grocery store, where items are comparable in quality, reduced in cost and has more selection,” according to the report.

Some councillors suggested holding the market once or twice a month on Saturdays in conjunction with other events to help draw people. Other councillors countered the market needs to be held weekly.

No matter how many Saturdays a month the market is open, Councillor Hugo Kroon said Stouffville Country Market, right now, is “too much competition for us.”

However, the private Tenth Line market’s days are numbered. Earlier in the council meeting, a subdivision plan agreement extension for Courtney Valley Estates and Lillipad Developments to October 2017 was approved by council. They are the owners of the land on Tenth Line north of EastRidge Evangelical Missionary Church, which is where the Stouffville Country Market is located.