The 2020 Season @ West Side Farmers Market
A nonprofit fundraiser supporting
West Side Farmers MarketSupport local food and community building when we need it most through the West Side Farmers Market.
$3,240
raised by 60 people
$3,000 goal
Over 1/2 Way There!
Good Afternoon West Side Farmers Market (WSFM) Tribe,
The initial response to the Give at Home Campaign has been amazing! We have raised $1725 of our $3000 target to date by 33 contributors. Thank you to those of you who have already donated!
For those of you like me who love to procrastinate, now is your time to shine!
There are only two days left. Luckily, Give MN has built in “Bonus Grants” and “Golden Tickets” to the campaign.
Give today and your donation will be entered into a drawing. If chosen, WSFM can win a Bonus Grant up to $2500 and/or a Golden ticket prize of $2500 as well!!
Time is running out! Will your generous donation that you make today be the one chosen for these crucial added funds?
Head to https://www.givemn.org/giving-events/giveathomemn20/home, find WSFM and be the community member that gives the gift that keeps on giving!!!!!
WSFM is so lucky to have community members like you to serve. We are eternally grateful for you and look forward to the impact we will be able to make with your support! GO WSFM!
Have a good one.
Best,
Lindsay Bejblik
Board President
West Side Farmers Market
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
This is perhaps one of the most exciting but also important letters I have had the privilege of writing in the nine years I have been affiliated with the West Side Farmers Market(WSFM).
Since its inception, WSFM has been a volunteer based operation. The Market literally started off by selling items in the neighborhood on a coffee shop driveway with tv trays for vending stalls. The need and desire for a local farmers market to bolster the food economy was apparent!
A town meeting was held in 2012; all were welcome! A determination was made as to just exactly what the community wanted, and a plan to launch an official market was hatched.
Thankfully, a lovely family bought the old Dairy Queen on the corner of the main drag and turned it into a friendlier place. The Icy Cup- our venue was born! WSFM has grown into a bustling market, featuring over 40 vendors each season, and an array of goods as diverse as our vendors!
Your presence each week positively impacts the whole community. Supporters of the market like you are the life-blood of WSFM! The relationship being reciprocal, creates a lovely system that can perpetuate permanently when each community member plays their own important and vital part, especially as food insecurity rises. A local farmers market is an essential component of your neighborhood.
Your “petite but powerful” farmers market as dubbed by Food and Wine Magazine, exists for three main reasons:
- to support the local food economy by providing food security to your neighbors
- a platform for farmers and cottage foodies to make their living selling delicious local crops and prepared foods
- serve as an inclusive community building venue that promotes music, the arts and agri-education
It is our pleasure to announce that as of 2019 your WSFM is officially a 501(c)3 Non-Profit organization. You can be so proud to have grown this from such organic roots into what it is today!
Unfortunately, COVID-19 has greatly impacted how we are able to allow the farmers to vend their goods. The formatting will be completely altered, and social distancing will be the best case scenario for how your market will conduct business this season. Social distancing limits the number of folks able to attend each week, therefore slashing transactions. WSFM has been on such a roll, this is definitely a hard pill to swallow. The ability to carry out the mission to create a happy and healthy west side is in jeopardy.
Thank goodness you care about WSFM existing and operating at its fullest capacity! You create the hope that this market season will turn out to be something magical in spite of COVID-19 setbacks.
WSFM graciously accepts the generous, tax deductible donation you will send in today! Your precious funds will give the market the needed boost to accommodate for the steep yet necessary dips in revenue in order to protect us all.
Not less, but more work has come of this unique situation. Your money will allow WSFM to continue to pay staff and allow for this crucial neighborhood institution to continue to exist in these uncertain times.
We are deeply humbled to be the recipient of your monetary support during this campaign. Thank you so much.
In Kind,
Lindsay Bejblik
Board President WSFM
P.S. Opening day of the Market is June 6, 2020. See you there neighbor!