The Weblog
The local foods movement is alive and well in Champaign County! Here are some updates on other projects while we finalize our virtual market:
Local Producers Map:
Our local producers map is ready for publication and you will soon be able to find it on gochampaign.com. Copies will be distributed around the community, in the local telephone book, and other “hangouts”. The guide lists the location and contact information for nearly 50 local producers within our county. The map was a project of the Local Food Council and printed with the help of some local sponsors including the Monument Square District, Champaign Bank, the Community Improvement Corporation, the Chamber of Commerce, the Farm Bureau and others. It is a great start to finding a local source for Champaign County’s finest!
Good day virtual family!
This post expired on October 31, 2022.
I hope this finds you well today and marking your calendars if you ordered something from the market this week for pickup tomorrow from 4:30 to 6:30. I have a favor to ask of each of you. I am working on some data collection and asking for your permission to help. As you may or may not know, we received a grant to create this market. I would like to document how the creation of this market has changed, or not, how you shopped at a farmers market. Would you characterize yourself as one of these options: Please generally choose options 1-4: 1)I did not shop at any of the existing farmers’ markets because it wasn’t held at a convenient place or time for me or I didn’t know about them, but now enjoy the virtual market and would consider myself a new customer to farmers market shopping, 2) I have shopped at at least one of the other 4 markets in the county (Urbana, Mechanicsburg, St. Paris, N.Lewisburg) but now choose to shop solely at the virtual market instead, 3)I currently shop more than one market including the virtual market as I find both options convenient, 4) I shop at the virtual market AND other markets more than I did prior to just any of the markets alone. Additionally, did any of you feel like you needed to meet the vendors at one of the traditional markets before ordering at the virtual market? In the future I plan to create an official survey to figure out a generic idea of how the virtual option may or may not assist in selling local produce. As we make every attempt to spend our grant money in the best manner possible, I will be asking you again to help me so please feel free to share your opinion as there are no right or wrong answers and you will never be targeted with a sales pitch for answering a specific way or another. This is simply so we can generalize your shopping experiences. Don’t worry, I will never share your specific contact information or specific shopping record without asking you (an example might be where I would collect the group’s data in a powerpoint presentation at a food conference for instance). Might you email me with your choice of numbers 1-4 and let me know about the additional question too? I would so appreciate it! Thanks so much!
Heather