The Hanover Farmers Market is looking for new leadership and a new location after it was discontinued as part of the merger between the Hanover and Lebanon chambers of commerce, now called the Upper Valley Business Alliance.
Its most recent location, on the Dartmouth Green, also proved problematic, with limited access for vendors, scant parking for customers and questions about whether it was helping other retailers in town.
โAs we were going through our various programs that each chamber offered, we had to make some decisions as to which programs we would carry forward into our new organization,โ said Tracy Hutchins, who was previously president of the Hanover chamber and now is president of the business alliance. โIt was decided, just in terms of bandwidth and support we could give to the farmers market at this time, (that) we would not be the sponsoring organization.โ
The farmers market โ which was held on Wednesday afternoons from mid-June to mid-October โ just finished its 11th season, Hutchins said. When it started, it was held in the upper two levels of the townโs parking garage before it moved to the Dartmouth Green. The chamber hired a part-time employee as its market manager.
โThroughout the season we would have around 50 vendors, but at any given market we were somewhere around 30,โ Hutchins said. โWe could have 500 people on any given Wednesday.โ
The market was not without its challenges. Vendors werenโt allowed to drive onto the green to unload, Hanover Town Manager Julia Griffin said. And parking was a challenge for vendors and patrons alike.
โItโs long been a source of frustration on part of the farmers,โ Griffin said.
This year, the town closed down College Street during market days to try to address that.
โThat posed problems for traffic flow in town,โ Griffin said. โWhen you close off one key roadway consistently every week, itโs problematic.โ
Some vendors didย well at the Hanover Farmers Market while others struggled.
โThey were good for us,โ said Carley McKee, who owns Moon Castle Farm in Topsham, Vt., alongside her husband, Harold Brenkus.
The couple sold produce at the market for two seasons.
โWe had a lot of regular, good customers that would come every week to get vegetables from us,โ she said. โThat in addition to the student foot traffic ended up being pretty good to us.โ
Nancy LaRowe, food and farm coordinator at Vital Communities, said that prepared food vendors tended to doย better business at the Hanover Farmers Marketย than traditional farmers.
โMany farms had tried it but discontinued vending there because they just didnโt have enough sales to warrant the effort and labor to go to that market,โ LaRowe said. โThe community needs to support the market and it really comes down to that.โ
The market was originally created to bring more people downtown, with hopes that Hanover businesses would benefit from increased foot traffic.
โThat was not what happened,โ Griffin said. โIt was far enough moved from downtown … that the merchants werenโt finding a benefit from market Wednesday.โ
If the market were to continue, it would need to find a new location while ideally staying downtown.
โThe big challenge is where? Weโve demonstrated the green is not ideal because you canโt get vehicles on the green,โ Griffin said. โWeโre struggling with โWhere can we host this and still have it benefit downtown?โ โ
Allen and South streets, located off South Main Street, are both being floated as possible locations.
โI think those are the only two streets that might be viable. Weโre constrained downtown,โ Griffin said. โWe havenโt given up yet, but itโs going to be challenging to figure out an alternate location to the green thatโs as visible. One of the things we felt so strongly about is we want to do something thatโs going to benefit our other retailers.โ
Whoever took it on could turn to Vital Communities and the former Hanover chamber for assistance and contacts.
But a farmers market โ and its vendors โ cannot be successful without support from the community.
โTheyโre a wonderful community asset and theyโre such a jewel for our communities, but farmers are businesses and if they donโt make a living they wonโt continue to vend at farmers markets,โ LaRowe said. โItโs the same with local business. You might need to make an extra effort, but when you donโt support the things you love that make the community great, they start disappearing.โ
Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.
