ENDLESS BOUNTY: THE

TRANSFORMATIVE BENEFITS OF
PUBLIC MARKETS
FEB 28, 2010
PUBLIC MARKETSECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTHEALTH & WELLBEING
94

Public markets are not just places of commerce. Successful markets help grow and connect urban
and rural economies. They encourage development, enhance real estate values and the tax base,
and keep money in the local neighborhood. Public markets also offer low-risk business opportunities
for vendors and feed money back into the rural economy where many vendors grow, raise and
produce their products.

The spin-off benefits of markets are numerous. From increasing access to fresh, healthy food to
providing important revenue streams, markets positively impact local businesses, governments and
residents. But, perhaps most important is the way markets serve as public gathering places for
people from different ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic communities. As one of the few places
where people comfortably gather and meet, markets are our neighborhoods’ original civic centers.
 PPS, with support from the Ford Foundation, researched the impacts markets have on their
communities. Six of the most prominent impacts are below. These findings helped frame a three-
year grant program funded by Ford and the W.K. Kellogg Foundations, and in our on-going project
work we continue to see that successful public markets are more than just business enterprises,
they are public spaces that shape communities and economies for the better.

Learn more about the benefits of public markets:

1. Provide Economic Opportunity

2. Link Urban & Rural Economies
3. Bring Together Diverse People
4. Promote Public Health
5. Create Active Public Space
6. Renew Downtowns & Neighborhoods

Check out more information on Great Public Markets at our Great Public Spaces site.

PUBLIC MARKETS PROVIDE

ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
Public markets are the ultimate small business incubator. From your casual, one-day a week flea
market vendor to your serious, seven-day a week market hall vendor, public markets are wonderful
places for people - especially minorities, immigrants and women - to grow a business.
Typically, markets work as entry points for new entrepreneurs because they are relatively
inexpensive to start and operate. Vendors often only have to invest in minimal stall infrastructure
which requires fewer resources and risk than building up a stand-alone business. In fact, PPS’ Ford
Foundation research showed that most market vendors start their businesses using their own
money.

Self-motivation, energy and commitment have fueled market vendors for centuries. To serve the
growing number of people who are interested in becoming market vendors, PPS recently developed
a handbook which identifies the best practices for starting and growing a market business.

RESOURCES

How to Start Your Business at a Local Market: a Vendor Handbook

Diversifying Farmers Market Report

Public Markets as a Vehicle for Social Integration and Upward Mobility

Public Markets Conference Sets New Agenda for Communities and Local Economies

PROJECTS

Flint Farmers Market, Flint, MI

Halifax Seaport Farmers Market, Halifax, NS, Canada

West Side Market and Market District, Cleveland, OH

MARKET CASE STUDIES

East New York Farms!, Brooklyn, NY

Webb City Farmers Market, Webb City, MO

Comments

PUBLIC MARKETS LINK URBAN

AND RURAL ECONOMIES
The nation’s local food systems, vital to our health, security and economic well-being, have long
been an under-recognized as force for regional economic development. As these systems have
become more nationally and internationally focused our rural and even urban communities have
suffered. In fact, many of our country’s cities and towns would run out of fresh food in just three days
if national distribution channels were interrupted.
Markets are the focal point for the restoration of these local food systems and are one of the few
places where the divergent worlds of city and country meet and mutually support each other.
Through commerce and conversation public markets link urban and rural economies and
communities.
RESOURCES

Expanding the Potential of State and Regional Farmers Market Associations

Public Markets Conference Sets New Agenda for Communities and Local Economies

Think Globally, Buy Locally

PROJECTS

Boston Public Market Implementation Plan, Boston, MA

Eastern Market, Detroit, MI

Flint Farmers Market, Flint, MI

CASE STUDIES

Community Farm Alliance: Kentucky

PUBLIC MARKETS BRING

TOGETHER DIVERSE PEOPLE
Many cities and towns across the country are experiencing notable demographic shifts as immigrant
groups move to the U.S. and establish new families and communities. Public markets have often
been the most socially diverse public places in a community, bringing people of different ages,
genders, races ethnicities, and socioeconomic status together around the experiences of food,
shopping, music and conversation. While markets vary in their degrees of social interaction, few are
homogenous and many are represent the diversity of 21st century American communities.
Many of the markets awarded funding from PPS, through the W.K. Kellogg Foundation grant
program, were located in communities with growing immigrant populations. Market organizers saw
an opportunity through their markets to bring together different and new members of the community.
They developed strategies to create spaces of inclusion by having non-English speaking individuals
on their staff, recruiting new growers from immigrant communities, and transformed their market
spaces into places where cultural barriers were dissolved, marginalized residents were empowered
and differences were celebrated. Increasing cultural diversity became an asset that brought new
products, customers, vendors and social programming to their markets.

RESOURCES

Diversifying Farmers Markets Report

Markets for All

PROJECTS

Moore Street Market, Brooklyn, NY

Virginia Avenue Park and Pico Farmers Market, Santa Monica, CA

MARKET CASE STUDIES

Webb City Farmers Market, Webb City, MO

PUBLIC MARKETS PROMOTE

PUBLIC HEALTH

Obesity-related diseases are at epidemic proportions in the U.S., hitting marginalized and
disadvantaged populations especially hard. Childhood obesity, which can have grave, long-term
health impacts, is especially alarming.\

Public markets can play a key role in alleviating these health concerns, improving access to fresh
fruits and vegetables, especially for those without grocery stores, and serving as a public gathering
place that helps reduce social isolation and depression. Through a W. K. Kellogg Foundation-
funded grant program, PPS supported efforts across the country to create economically sustainable
markets in low-income communities. With support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, PPS, in
partnership with Columbia University, analyzed how eight of PPS’s grantee markets were serving to
increase access to fresh food in their communities.

We have prepared a handbook to identify best practices for farmers markets interested in redeeming
the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP/food stamps) at their markets. This effort
makes markets more accessible for lower income customers who are most at risk for obesity-related
disease.

In addition to offering access to healthy, fresh foods, markets can also offer critical health and
wellness education and information in a friendly, welcoming public gathering space. PPS assisted
Kaiser Permanente, the country’s largest HMO, make their network of farmers markets operating at
hospitals and clinics more sustainable and beneficial for vendors and customers. And, through a
series of grants PPS supported the Camden Area Health Education Center in Camden New Jersey,
one of the poorest cities in the U.S. grow their farmers market network from one farm stand to five
markets, which are all centers for health information.

RESOURCES

Farmers Markets as a Strategy to Improve Access to Healthy Food for Low-Income Families and
Communities

Diversifying Farmers Market Report

Public Markets and Community Health: An Examination

SNAP/EBT at your Farmers Market: Seven Steps to Success

PROJECTS

Birmingham Public Markets Study, Birmingham, AL

Kaiser Permanente Farmers Market Network, Nationwide

Market Case Studies

Camden AHEC, Camden, NJ

Fondy Food Center,Milwaukee, WI

Athens Farmers Market, Athens, OH

PUBLIC MARKETS CREATE ACTIVE

PUBLIC SPACE
In the town of Vandergrift, PA, a weekly farmers market transforms a public parking lot into a public
gathering space for the community. Town leaders interested in expanding the market and creating a
real town square worked with PPS to prepare a plan to renovate an adjacent park and turn the
parking lot into a flexible public plaza good for outdoor movie nights, community suppers and the
growing market.

PPS assisted Spartanburg, SC in opening a new farmers market next to a recently renovated train
station and nearby park. Immediately, this underused space became the pulse of the city with
shopping, cooking demonstrations, children’s activities, and more. Towns and cities like Vandergrift
and Spartanburg exist all over the country, and show that vibrant public spaces can be created
relatively simply through public markets.
RESOURCES

How Markets Can Turn a Place Around

Diversifying Farmers Market Report

PROJECTS

Hub City Farmers Market, Spartanburg SC

NewBo City Market, Cedar Rapids, IA

Vandergrift Farmers Market, Vandergrift PA

MARKET CASE STUDIES

Allen Street Farmers Market, Lansing, MI

High Springs Farmers Market, High Springs, FL

PUBLIC MARKETS RENEW

DOWNTOWNS AND
NEIGHBORHOODS
Successful public markets are the heart and soul of downtowns and neighborhoods, infusing our
cities and towns with new energy and social and economic activity. Public markets, even if they only
operate one day a week, act as an anchor for local businesses, encourage spin-off development,
enhance tax bases and real estate values, and ultimately keep local dollars in the local economy.

Markets attract new life to a downtown and encourage customers to spend more money and time,
not just in the market, but in nearby shops and businesses. In a PPS survey of over 800
customers from a variety of indoor and open-air markets around the country, PPS discovered that
60% of market shoppers also visited nearby stores on the same day; of those, 60% said that they
visited those additional stores only on days that they visit the market.

RESOURCES

Estimating the Economic Impact of Public Markets

How Markets Can Turn a Place Around

Diversifying Farmers Market Report

Public Markets as a Vehicle for Social Integration and Upward Mobility

The Sticky Economy Evaluation Device (SEED)

PROJECTS

Flint Farmers Market, Flint, MI

NewBo City Market, Cedar Rapids, IA