North Coast Growers Association seeking funds for integral transport

“The farmers markets were started by farmers, who actually started selling out of the back of their vehicles in Old Town back in the late 70s”, says Laura Hughes, director of operations for the North Coast Growers Association. 

That worked for a time, but eventually, these markets became so popular they needed help to run them. 

“The North Coast Growers Association operates ten farmers markets throughout the county, from Southern Humboldt all the way to Willow Creek. And we employ several market managers at all of those locations”, says Hughes. 

And they use a truck to move administrative and safety materials between the big markets.

“We use the vehicle at two markets during the summer. the Arcata Plaza market is our primary market with the most logistical infrastructure. And then we also use it at the McKinleyville Market on Thursdays”, says Hughes.

But that truck has been broken down, leaving them in a bind. 

“It’s an office and a farmer’s market booth on wheels. So we’ve got two canopies for our office booth at the market. We also have our music canopy, all of the street closure supplies, including cones and road closed signs and handicap and mobility limited signage, everything that we need to operate the market lives inside that vehicle and it’s an absolutely critical infrastructure for the operations that we do.  we haven’t been able to bring some of that ancillary infrastructure that isn’t absolutely critical with the size of the vehicle that we have currently. So we’ll be able to reinstate some of our safety, supplies and other supplies with these as market”, Hughes says. 

The truck has been broken down and repaired one too many times. Now, it needs to be replaced, which will cost 54 thousand dollars. You can find a link to donate here.

https://donorbox.org/farmers-market-vehicle

Story by Tucker Caraway