Become a Patron of Charlottetown Farmers' Market
Donation protected
ABOUT US
We are The Charlottetown Farmers’ Market, a not-for-profit, membership-based cooperative supporting local family businesses and our community!
We need your support to rebuild our community hub so we can improve our service to Islanders and visitors.
We are a vibrant year-round market that first opened its wooden doors in 1814. We have been operating from our current location on 100 Belvedere Avenue in Charlottetown since 1984.
Every Saturday between 9am – 2pm, 60+ farmers, artisans and prepared food vendors offer high-quality local products for purchase to Islanders and visitors alike.
We are engaged in the farmers’ market movement and staunch supporters of our local vendors. We are progressive in our programming and passionate about creating the best experience possible to empower and nourish our community.
Food security and providing access to healthy, local food are key priorities for the market. As such, we have fostered partnerships with many local and regional community groups to address these issues and develop programs that enable more members of our community to shop at the Market.
Our structure is built around active participation and community building. Our mission is to assist our local food producers in providing healthy food and the best quality products to their customers at competitive prices.
WHY WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT
The past 2 years of shut-downs, pivots, capacity caps, and other pandemic-related adjustments have significantly impacted our once-thriving Market community. While life is returning to normal and we are excited to be fully open again, our financial stability has been compromised.
As a non-profit co-operative, we rely wholly on the rent we collect from our vendors to maintain the market’s day-to-day operations. We strive to keep these rents very reasonable, so that our vendors do not have to mark up the price of their products and can make an income growing and making food.
During the first wave of the pandemic, we reduced rent for several months and introduced an online store to support our vendors and help the community meet their food demands while maintaining safety protocols. Unfortunately, the market was not exempt from the economic hardships caused by the lockdown, facing zero rent income during and after the lockdown, whilst still operating with the usual expenses and additional ones too.
So why not just double our vendors’ rent now? As you can imagine, the past 2 years have been very challenging for our vendors. Most of them have seen significantly reduced sales. Despite the on-going love and support from the community (thank you!!), attendance at the Market has been much lower than normal almost every month since March 2020. Couple that with the increasing costs of running a business (fuel, seeds, etc.) and you can quickly understand how these many factors have impacted our vendors.
Given all our vendors have had to face over the past 2 years, we really, really don’t want to hike rents. That is why we are now asking for your help to keep the Market operations going and fund much-needed repairs and Market services.
WHAT DO WE NEED FUNDS FOR?
1. RENOVATIONS
We are restructuring and remodeling, this is to enable us to maintain our goal of providing top-quality service, and fresh, locally-produced food to our community at affordable prices.
We are contemplating structured renovations at the Farmers’ market. There are currently several areas of the market that require remodeling and change. The doors and roof especially are old, faulty and in need of urgent repair. They currently require a lot of effort and manpower to maintain and over the winter, they were almost unable to conserve heat in the building.
The current goal is to install 3 new doors and begin renovations on the roof at our location to create a better atmosphere for our community.
2. FOR MUSICIANS AND EVENTS
We are excited to have summer coming soon and we are just as delighted to announce that we are interested in scheduling and hosting several local artists and music groups at the market.
The current goal is to have artists performing all summer long to entertain and make your valued visits to the market even more pleasurable.
We are The Charlottetown Farmers’ Market, a not-for-profit, membership-based cooperative supporting local family businesses and our community!
We need your support to rebuild our community hub so we can improve our service to Islanders and visitors.
We are a vibrant year-round market that first opened its wooden doors in 1814. We have been operating from our current location on 100 Belvedere Avenue in Charlottetown since 1984.
Every Saturday between 9am – 2pm, 60+ farmers, artisans and prepared food vendors offer high-quality local products for purchase to Islanders and visitors alike.
We are engaged in the farmers’ market movement and staunch supporters of our local vendors. We are progressive in our programming and passionate about creating the best experience possible to empower and nourish our community.
Food security and providing access to healthy, local food are key priorities for the market. As such, we have fostered partnerships with many local and regional community groups to address these issues and develop programs that enable more members of our community to shop at the Market.
Our structure is built around active participation and community building. Our mission is to assist our local food producers in providing healthy food and the best quality products to their customers at competitive prices.
WHY WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT
The past 2 years of shut-downs, pivots, capacity caps, and other pandemic-related adjustments have significantly impacted our once-thriving Market community. While life is returning to normal and we are excited to be fully open again, our financial stability has been compromised.
As a non-profit co-operative, we rely wholly on the rent we collect from our vendors to maintain the market’s day-to-day operations. We strive to keep these rents very reasonable, so that our vendors do not have to mark up the price of their products and can make an income growing and making food.
During the first wave of the pandemic, we reduced rent for several months and introduced an online store to support our vendors and help the community meet their food demands while maintaining safety protocols. Unfortunately, the market was not exempt from the economic hardships caused by the lockdown, facing zero rent income during and after the lockdown, whilst still operating with the usual expenses and additional ones too.
So why not just double our vendors’ rent now? As you can imagine, the past 2 years have been very challenging for our vendors. Most of them have seen significantly reduced sales. Despite the on-going love and support from the community (thank you!!), attendance at the Market has been much lower than normal almost every month since March 2020. Couple that with the increasing costs of running a business (fuel, seeds, etc.) and you can quickly understand how these many factors have impacted our vendors.
Given all our vendors have had to face over the past 2 years, we really, really don’t want to hike rents. That is why we are now asking for your help to keep the Market operations going and fund much-needed repairs and Market services.
WHAT DO WE NEED FUNDS FOR?
1. RENOVATIONS
We are restructuring and remodeling, this is to enable us to maintain our goal of providing top-quality service, and fresh, locally-produced food to our community at affordable prices.
We are contemplating structured renovations at the Farmers’ market. There are currently several areas of the market that require remodeling and change. The doors and roof especially are old, faulty and in need of urgent repair. They currently require a lot of effort and manpower to maintain and over the winter, they were almost unable to conserve heat in the building.
The current goal is to install 3 new doors and begin renovations on the roof at our location to create a better atmosphere for our community.
2. FOR MUSICIANS AND EVENTS
We are excited to have summer coming soon and we are just as delighted to announce that we are interested in scheduling and hosting several local artists and music groups at the market.
The current goal is to have artists performing all summer long to entertain and make your valued visits to the market even more pleasurable.
Organizer
Charlottetown Farmers Market
Organizer
Charlottetown, PE
