The snows have arrived and are here to stay and our market’s 4th season has, sadly, drawn to a close. The
SWEFM Board,
volunteers and
vendors would like to send
a big thank you out to the community that has supported it so well throughout
the season, and to the
sponsors that have contributed so generously, allowing the
market to develop innovative programs and fun experiences for the community at
large. The market has survived and thrived through stormy weather (remember
that emergency take down and all that spring rainy weather?), cold
temperatures, blissful sunshine and extreme heat… all part of the fun when it
comes to an outdoor market!
The market’s goal is to create a community gathering place for
the residents of Southwest Edmonton, connecting local farmers, producers and
artisans who provide fresh, locally grown and made food and hand-made goods,
with the people of Southwest Edmonton, fostering relationships that create a
greater sense of community and a stronger local economy. This year
saw a few changes happen to the market scene that helped to develop this
vision:
Sprouts
was a brand new initiative at the market, designed to
provide children with nutritional food choices, to empower them to make
their own healthy eating decisions, to educate kids about where their food
comes from, and to encourage them to lead a healthy lifestyle. It was a
tremendous success, seeing over 400 children registered in the program, each
receiving $2 wooden tokens to spend on fruits, vegetables and food plants every
time they visited the market. The families of children enrolled in the program
received weekly emails with recipes designed especially for children to
encourage them to experiment in the kitchen, to develop cooking skills, and to
take part in family meal prep at home. Over the winter the SWEFM Board will be
tinkering with the program to make it more accessible to a greater number of
children and families next year.
Nutrition Tours
& Experience This! The
market is a tremendous vehicle for education and contributes greatly to the
physical health of the community at large.
Experience This! was a new weekly market experience that
helped inform and inspire. Rooted at the SWEFM Information Tent, it highlighted special
items brought to market by participating vendors, and encouraged them to have
fun and think outside the box when it came to creating and bringing their
specialties to our market. Chelsey and Ann, U of A Nutrition students, took
market patrons on tours of the market, showing them hidden nutrition gems and
helped our shoppers navigate the seemingly complex world of dietary issues. Using
themes like Fat Is Your Friend and Protein Power, they provided a wealth of
information about making sound nutritional choices, eating gluten free, dealing
with food allergies and helping with weight loss.
Buskers The
busking line-up was greatly expanded this year to include a wealth of musical
talent. From accomplished TRAC Youth Talent Show performers through to a
skilled accordion player, acoustic guitar experts, a raspy blues singer and a
full-on Ukrainian band, musicians added greatly to the atmosphere of the
market. We also added other skilled street performers. Three talented balloon artists and Lady Dolphin, the ever-popular face painter, entertained children at most markets. The Free Will Players came and had their break-out stage fights, the Cheerific Cheer Team did demos, the Sunny Girl Statue came alive when coins were dropped in her watering can and Miranda tossed fireballs around and escaped from her straight jacket.
The Community Tent
became a place for residents to connect with the people who are changing the
face of Edmonton’s southwest. It hosted Premier Dave Hancock, the River Valley
Alliance (responsible for building a comprehensive river valley trail system that
includes the new footbridge being built in Terwillegar Park), University of
Alberta researchers, the Terwillegar Spray Park organizers, and a host of
health & community promoters, along with its usual community league participants. There are a lot of very active and inspiring volunteers in our community, striving to make our City an amazing place in which we can all live, work and play.
Food Trucks
have become an important part of SWEFM’s community scene, providing a great
reason for people to gather together, connecting over a tasty, easy meal. Bully
and Yellowbird Café were two resident food trucks that brought creative and
healthy meal options to the market each week. This season saw the creation of
one rotating spot for trucks such as Knosh, Drift and La Poutine that introduced
variety to the food scene at the market. And a 4
th truck was added
during the busy summer months.
Plant A Row, Grow
A Row. The market was once again the harvest collection site for the
food bank in our city and added a second date this year to its lineup. Shoppers
and gardeners could now contribute fresh, nutrient dense
real food to those in need of assistance in our community on the
last Wednesdays of August and September. Even our Sprouts got in on the donations, using their wooden tokens to purchase fresh fruit and vegetables to donate. We collected 900lbs of fresh food to the Edmonton Food Bank thanks to the generosity of our local community!
Volunteers will always be the heart and soul of this
community project, offering up their expertise, time, creativity and tremendous
community spirit to the market. Part of the SWEFM vision this year included
giving young people a quality volunteering experience to help them become the
leaders of tomorrow. A number of university and high school students came out
tirelessly each and every week, contributing tremendous sweat and heart, and
helped with a wealth of tasks in many roles.
Should you, or an organization that you represent, want to
become more involved in our local market scene or have ideas or feedback to
contribute, please contact us through
www.swefm.ca.
Thank-you to those of you who took the time to fill out our online survey. We are using your input and ideas to develop and tweak things behind the scenes to make our 2015 season even better than this year!
See you next season!
