RCFM invites you to join us in noting Canada’s first Bottled Water Free Day on March 11th. For more info, you can check out Bottled Water Free Day online. RCFM is, and will continue to be, bottled water free. We are proudly serving good ol’ New Westminster tap water at our summer markets. You can also watch and pass around this funny and enlightening video!
Pass it on!
American ski champion Bode Miller is not only super duper famous right now for winning a gold, a silver, and a bronze at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, he’s also a credit to farming and the preservation of buying local produce. Right after he won the 2005 World Championship, he went and bought the farm – literally. He still runs his own farm and sells direct.
Bode Miller thinks farming is cool. So should you.
(Excuse the overt Stonyfield advertising in this video – they are obviously a sponsor):
PS: Thanks to PHD in Parenting for the video tip.
Royal City Farmers Market 2010 Board of Directors set to make the market grow, grow, grow!
NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. – The Royal City Farmers Market is pleased to welcome two fresh faces to the 2010 Board of Directors elected at the RCFM AGM on January 28. Mompreneur owner of online baby boutique Pinky & Co. Alix Cote and programmer and photographer Graham Ballantyne will join incumbents Andrew Murray, Will Tomkinson, Sheila Rowswell, John Ashdown and Matthew Laird in planning the continued growth of the market in 2010.
One of the market’s priorities in 2010 is to attract more members to the association. RCFM will offer exclusive benefits for members including discounts on RCFM’s reusable shopping totes and special ‘member appreciation’ markets.
“I think the time has come where we need to concentrate on growing our membership, ensuring there are member benefits, and contributing to the community as a whole,” says RCFM President Andrew Murray.
Adding high quality vendors is also a priority. Says Board Vice President and Vendor Liaison Will Tomkinson, “We have to work to make sure that we continue to attract high quality vendors to the market so that we can offer the very best to the citizens of New Westminster.”
Two indoor markets remain in the winter market season, with a ‘Spring Fling’ theme on March 20 and a Garden Market theme on April 17. Weekly Thursday markets resume in June in Tipperary Park.
The 2010 Board of Directors includes:
NEW WESTMINSTER – The Royal City Farmers Market invites New Westminster to share the love at the next Winter Market, coming up just after Valentine’s Day on Saturday, February 20.
“As always, I can’t wait for the monthly winter market,” says Operations Manager Jen Arbo. “I feel such a huge sense of community at the market, and look forward to not only the food and other goods, but seeing all the happy faces, both familiar and new!”
The theme for February’s market will be “In Love With the Market” and will feature musical guest Chris Messytone playing romantic French and Italian folk music on the accordion. As always, customers will find locally grown fresh produce, homemade goodies, handmade crafts and one-of-a-kind items.
The market will feature storytelling for the kids with author Kathleen McMillan, who will read her heartwarming story of Bluebeary the Bear. The New Westminster Community Garden Society will be present to share their progress on opening new garden sites around the city.
RCFM will also be “spreading the love” by collecting food bank donations at the event.
The market will be held from 10am-2pm on Saturday, February 20 at the Holy Trinity Cathedral Hall at 514 Carnarvon St. For a listing of all vendors who will be there, check out the complete details.
The Royal City Farmers Market AGM was held January 28. For those who were unable to attend, we are posting the text of the speeches each board member gave to summarize our progress in the 2009 market year.
I had experienced the market for the inaugural summer season and immediately witnessed how it brought the community together.
While the vendors themselves were the experts at being a local, environmentally responsible source of food and the work of the market manager and society was doing great job promoting that link between consumer and producer, what I saw was my neighbors.
It was the way the market drew the citizens of our city to interact in one spacious, safe place. I saw how community groups were able to reach out and pursue the good works they promoted within the city.
Neighbours could come out of their TV rooms and talk, neighbourhoods could come together from across town and kids could play together outside of school with their families sharing that time with them. Local politicians could go right up to their constituents and find out what they thought but more importantly, the voters could talk with their elected reps to find out what they were doing!
So I found my place as a volunteer. I just showed up and started to help, to get a feel for the group and to find out what needed to get done. I soon learned that there is a lot of work behind the scenes (and kudos to the others on the board and the volunteers for getting this important event off the ground for the first season in 2008).
I quickly learned that a key element in attracting the neighbourhoods and civic liveliness to the events was the high quality of our vendors: their products, their expertise…..their spirit. I also learned that the reason that a relatively small market like the RCFM was able to attract such quality vendors was both the spirit that the city brought every week and the level of support that market staff offered the vendors.
Time after time, I hear from our vendors that this is their favorite market or that the RCFM staff was one of the reasons that they had made a recommendation to another vendor or booked more weeks in a month than they otherwise would have. So besides the heavy lifting that any volunteer for RCFM needed to do, I made a point to foster this level of support and respect between the vendors and the RCFM.
On the board at the time, as Vendor Rep, was Ilona from Vienna Treasures. She is many things, including a cherished member of New Westminster’s small business community, an expert craftsman confectioneer and baker, an entrepreneur from her shop, her booth at RCFM and other markets, but she was also a valued member and a crucial voice on our board, speaking from a vendor’s perspective. When she stepped down from the board during the summer we missed her perspective and her work but thankfully, we didn’t have to miss her or her baking because the Vienna Treasures booth remained a key feature for many market weeks.
I was invited to join the board to inexpertly fill her position and, as I am not a vendor at any market, I took the post of vendor liaison. Strictly speaking, I was to be a voice from the vendor’s perspective, engage the vendors on behalf of the board to ensure they were happy with the direction and features of the market, and be an ear for any complaints or suggestions that might come up that could not be handled by the market manager. Some positions on the board are thankless tasks; this is not one of them.
I am happy to report…happy vendors! RCFM remains a preferred venue for many qualified, in demand and sought after vendors. During the summer and even now during the winter monthly markets, our problem has been where to put all of the fantastic vendors who have chosen to make a home with the RCFM. Our expansion into the winter is a testament to how our vendors feel about doing business in New Westminster. A good portion of the support and direction for the winter market came from our vendors themselves.
I am triply lucky as a member of the RCFM. I have the pleasure to work with an outstanding group of citizens who have come together and, in 2009 invite me, to help run this market; I get to interact with my neighbours and colleagues from this wonderful city and, I am proud to say, I can work with our RCFM vendors and the farmer’s market vendor community that brings such authenticity and craft to our town each week or each month. Here’s to 2010!
