About

The Gardiner Farmers’ Market is committed to providing the greater Gardiner community with access to fresh, local foods and supporting area  farmers, fishermen and food producers.  In addition, we aim to foster connections between farmers, producers and consumers and strengthen the local economy.

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Thanks to support from Gardiner Family Chiropractic, Gardiner Main Street, The Maine Community Foundation, our dedicated vendors and countless hours of volunteerism, the Gardiner Farmers’ Market continues to root and branch out since its inception in the summer of 2008.

Structurally, we are our own entity. The 12-22 vendors (depending on the season) are piloted by a market manager and a steering committee which, at the time of this writing, is made up of two vendors and two non-vendors. The manager and steering committee take care of the administrative, marketing and planning tasks and are in regular communication with the vendors for feedback and input.

Boo Hubbard was involved in the creation of the market and currently serves as the Market Manager.  The Steering Committee is comprised of Boo Hubbard, Sarah Miller, Paul Pidgeon, Denis Thoet and Anne Trenholm.

In the summer of 2009, we became the second farmers’ market in Maine to implement an Electronic Benefits Transfer system. An EBT card, which must be swiped through a special machine, is the form food stamps have taken since 2003, making them unusable at unequipped venues. After navigating the application process, we were able to take advantage of a free point of sale machine and began accepting EBT purchases soon after. The POS machine is located at the manager’s table and once the EBT card is swiped, Gardiner Farmers’ Market tokens are given to the customer to spend at the vendors of his or her choice. The tokens can also be purchased by anyone to be used immediately or given as gifts.  To date (October 2011), we have processed more than $5300 in EBT sales and we expect this number to keep growing.