The 2024 Farmers Market Resiliency Program (FMRP) application is now open! Click the button below to apply!
The Farmers Market Resiliency Program (FMRP) is a customized training and support program for board members, market managers, and farmers market vendors to increase long-term resiliency at Kentucky farmers markets. It is funded by a three-year Farmers Market Promotion Program grant from the United States Department of Agriculture. This program is geared towards markets that are hiring or planning to hire a new market manager.
The FMRP will help markets build their capacity for long-term sustainability. It will support markets in hiring and training a new market manager or training an existing market manager to be a skilled and effective leader. It is also excellent for markets that are in their first five years of operation as well as markets that have struggled with the implementation of or reporting for Kentucky Double Dollars (KDD) or Market Manager Cost Share (MMCS) grants,
Program Goals
The goals of the program are to help Kentucky farmers markets:
- Increase vendor and market manager success;
- Attract new and diverse vendors;
- Increase participation in food access programs;
- Strengthen a market’s business plan and management structure that maintains sustainable funding sources for the market.
Working alongside project partners, the FMRP responds directly to challenges unique to your community and helps to build a comprehensive support system for your market by:
- Partnering with market leaders to create a streamlined and adaptive farmers market training program that provides comprehensive support to the entire market, by including modules and technical assistance specific to not only the market manager, but to vendors, and board members;
- Providing tailored and responsive technical assistance to your market; and
- Fostering a peer-to-peer learning network so support continues beyond the grant period.
Market Eligibility
The FMRP is open to any Kentucky farmers market or community market which is interested in strengthening its organizational structures to create a sustainable future for the market. Eligibility priorities include one or more of the following-
- Markets with a high turnover of board members, market managers, and/or vendors.
- Markets that are wanting to establish or already have established a healthy food access program including but not limited to WIC or Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program, SNAP, Fruit & Veggie Rx, and/or Kentucky Double Dollars.
- New and emerging markets with 5 or fewer years in operation.
- Markets whose leadership, vendors, and/or community represents a socially disadvantaged population.*
*Defined as those belonging to groups that have been subject to racial or ethnic prejudice. This includes those who are Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Hispanic or Latino, and Asian or Pacific Islander, and/or a member of a racial or ethnic minority.