Youth Farmers Market

If you asked the happy customers leaving this year’s Youth Farmers Market what they were

more impressed with, the quality of the produce or the quality of the customer service, most

would be hard pressed to decide. The young people who ran the market rose to the challenge

and really showed everyone how impressive they can be.

Eight budding entrepreneurs, along with their Youth Care Team, our Program Coordinator and

Recreation Therapist, planned and executed the market thanks to the support of the Youth

Development Initiative (YDI). The week-long program involved taking pre-orders for produce

(in an effort to reduce waste and surplus inventory), traveling to the Annapolis Valley to harvest

the fruits and vegetables, filling the orders and then operating the market on pick up day. The

team decided to bring back some extra produce and made baked goods to see if they could make

some extra sales on top of what had already been ordered. This turned out to be a good

investment as they sold the majority of their extra items.

The young people earned a stipend for taking part in this program, but the employability skills

and experience they gained was far more valuable. The Program Coordinator even conducted

mock job interviews with them to start the program and they all received an evaluation in the end

explaining their strengths and weaknesses during the program. The program aims to promote the

values of work ethic, teamwork, education and fun and once again this year it hit the mark in all

areas.

Thank you to YDI and everyone who supported this program. The young people now have skills

and experience to list on their resumes and pride in knowing they ran a great farmers market.