Dear Market Managers:

We need your help! The Illinois Farmers Market Association is working to create a comprehensive shared Farmers Market database for Illinois. The database will be posted and utilized by Illinois Farmers Market Association, Illinois Department of Agriculture and Market Maker. Our goal is to have this database available on all partner websites by the end of September offering the most complete listing of Illinois Farmers Markets available. IFMA will also share it on our website for promotion and outreach of your market to the public. While we wish to grow our IFMA membership, it is not a requirement to be listed on all websites, although IFMA member markets will be noted.

Please complete the listing form with your Farmers Market(s) information with as much detail as you have available at this link: . Please complete a separate form for each market you manage that is on a different day, time or location.

The form link will soon be available on the IFMA website at https://ilfarmersmarkets.org/. If you have already completed the form, thank you for your time and please pass this letter along to other markets so that we can have the most complete database possible.

Our goal is to ensure that Illinois Farmers Market’s information is consistent and updated on all partner websites. This new database form will eliminate managers having to enter this data on multiple sites. Having a single data base will help us better identify and promote Illinois farmers markets to our community, state, and federal partners.

Illinois has been ranked in the top five in the nation for number of markets for the last few years.  However, current market listings are down considerably because many markets have not updated their information on the Illinois Department of Agriculture website. As new markets are organizing and growing across the state, in neighborhoods, villages, towns, and cities, and as the popularity of local food expands, our goal is to support and promote farmers markets across the state but we need to know the who, what, where and when!

United together through the Illinois Farmers Market Association we can become a force to be reckoned not only in Illinois but nationally as well. Thank you for your help in completing this valuable project.

Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions,

Pat Stieren

Executive Director, Illinois Farmers Market Association   

Matthew Evans, IFMA Intern/Database Project Manager,