The City of Bloomington Farmers' Market is held April through September on Saturdays.
(Bente Bouthier/WTIU News)
Customers pick out produce and mingle over baked goods and coffee at a farmers’ market in downtown Bloomington.
A trombone troupe starts playing around 10 a.m.
It’s the last Saturday of the summer. The city market is on track to have around 2,600 customers, according to Bloomington’s Events and Market Coordinator, Clarence Boone.
“I think people like what you see today, and that's a harmonious attraction of people who are coming to get fresh produce,” Boone said.
Five years ago, the city temporarily shut its farmers' market down over concerns for public safety. The white supremacist views of one of its vendors, Sarah Dye, became public, sparking protests over her presence.
“We had some major distractions that have since been somewhat dealt with,” Boone said. “We've resolved that, and now we're moving forward and not backward.”
Boone was hired in 2021 to manage the market and its programs.
The city market used to be the lone market in Bloomington. Now, there are at least three. Attendance and revenue at the city market have not recovered from before the controversy.
On the east side of town, The People’s Cooperative Market, founded in 2020, operates out of First United Church.
As a cooperative, the market aims to operate outside of capitalism. It delivers produce to people in need through its Community Sponsored Box program.
The market is for people who want to invest in the food system in an equitable way, Lauren McCalister, a co-founder and director, said.
Two of its founding members, McCalister and Jada Bee, said issues of racism brought to the surface in 2019 still exist.
McCalister (left) and Bee (right) during an interview in September. (Bente Bouthier/WTIU News)
“It's been disappointing to watch so many people shift socially, but not individually, especially when we consider how much money has been brought into the county and the city,” McCalister said. “There are still fewer Black businesses than there should be proportionally. There is still a huge gap between Black median pay and white median pay.”
This year, the Indiana State Department of Health canceled an $800,000 grant with the market.
Bee said the state canceled the grant after certain members voiced internal conflicts with People’s Market to the state, rather than resolving issues internally through mediation.
In June, an IDOH spokesperson said over email that during normal grant oversight, the department determined expenses were submitted that were not allowed. It canceled the funding with $315,000 left in the grant.
WFIU/WTIU News submitted records requests to the state in May for the market’s expense reports and has not received a response.
The state has yet to reallocate the remaining grant funds, which were given originally by the USDA.
McCalister manages several grants to fund the market and said the Department of Health never offered technical assistance for a considerably large grant. Bee added the state also cancelled the funding before invoices and expenses could be reconciled.
“I don't think either one of us would disagree that mistakes on our part were made,” Bee said. “I think that what we're disagreeing about is about how little help and support was given from IDOH, was given from our former colleagues, and was given from the farmers themselves in many cases.”
Former planning committee member and volunteer Susan Welsand helped found the People’s Market. She left last year over concerns that farmers were not being paid for produce on time. She reported her concerns to the IDOH.
“I started to wonder about where the regular customers were that did not come anymore, thinking about how many vendors had left, how many volunteers, and other planning committee members,” she said.
Welsand reached out to people to ask why they stopped attending.
“And the answer, pretty universally, was because ‘I was made not to feel welcome.’ Which was the exact opposite of what we were trying to create,” she said.
Welsand grows and sells chile peppers in Bloomington. (Bente Bouthier/WTIU News)
Attendance at The Woolery Market ranged from low to average this season for vendors and customers, according to market President Sarah Milward. Woolery had a pool of about 40 vendors this summer and about 20 were in attendance every Saturday.
The Winter Market, operated by the same management as Woolery, will start at the Switchyard Park Pavilion in November and run at that location through March.
For the month of November, the city and winter market will partner at the Switchyard Pavilion location.
Average monthly attendance at the city market was more than 33,000 in 2018. In 2019, it dropped to about 14,300. During the pandemic, those numbers dropped even further, to 4,800 in 2020.
Attendance at the city market is picking up but is still about a third of what it was in 2018.
The city revenue earned $48,043 from its market this year.
The lower attendance and revenue have hurt according to Michael Hicks, Living Roots Farm manager. Because of decreased attendance, he sold produce at both the city and Woolery Market last summer. But that requires more resources: two teams on Saturday, two vans to transport produce, and two market fees.
“We just need more customers,” Hicks said. “It doesn't matter what market. All the markets need more customers.”
Hicks said costs have gone up exponentially for farmers, but people do not want to pay more for food. He is in the process of closing Living Roots Farm, for personal reasons.
Boone said the city market aims to be a Saturday destination. Multiple markets mean customers have choices.
McCalister and Bee said attendance at The People’s Cooperative Market is never high but is right-sized for the people they serve.
The People's Cooperative Market is building a greenhouse at First United Church. (Bente Bouthier/WTIU News)
“It seems like it would make sense to join with larger entities, like maybe the city market or maybe the city of Bloomington itself,” Bee said. “However, when your values don't align, then you are either the one compromising or they're the one compromising constantly, and the city isn't going to compromise.”
For the winter, The People’s Market is moving to a once-a-month in-person schedule. It will still do its Community Sponsored Box program every week. For the spring and summer, it will resume gathering every Saturday. The market is building a greenhouse at First United Church and will offer plots to the community to use year-round.
