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Writer's pictureenvironmentallyfri3

Finding Community at the DG Farmer’s Market

Feeling anxious about ecological concerns can be very isolating when you’re feeling it on your own, because how can the actions of one person really make a difference? Greener Grove brings like-minded people together to take collective and effective action towards a more sustainable future, starting at home, in our town.




Community outreach is a big part of our mission, and so we began to look into ways to educate and talk with more residents of Downers Grove. The DG Farmers Market (Downtown Garden Market) operates every Saturday morning, from the end of May through the middle of October. It’s well attended by the community and many market-goers don’t mind stopping for a chat, if you’ve got the right enticements.  


Greener Grove Farmers Market Booth: Market-goers test their knowledge of native trees by identifying a variety of leaves.


     Vendors reserve and pay a fee for their spot at the market, but non-profits are allowed three free booth “appearances” per season.  Greener Grove was able to take advantage of having five free booths over the past two seasons, and according to our Communications Committee, the Market has been a main provider of new members for our organization: 95 people subscribed to receive our emails through our market efforts. It is of the utmost importance for us to gain subscribers because our emails often contain important and time-sensitive action items for residents to promote sustainability initiatives within the village. 


     Preparing the booth entails obtaining a tent  (which SCARCE generously loans us) tables, plus several chairs. The materials we bring include information about Greener Grove, with QR codes for quick access to our website and email signup.

Other materials are mentioned below.



Our strategies for drawing folks in are:


  1.  Having a craft ready for kids, so that, while they are busy with the art activity,  booth staffers can engage with parents, persuading them to look at our website

 and sign up to receive our emails.  The craft has been administered by teen

 Greener Grovers, and in the spirit of Zero Waste, they have used the artwork to decorate the tent.  


Craft taught kids about decomposers like mushrooms and worms which help improve our soil. We used their drawings to decorate our booth.

  1.  Having a display focusing on one of our Focus Issues (composting, chem-free lawn care, tree planting & protection, etc.). To create interest in the particular issue, we’ve

    used a model compost bin (Thanks again, SCARCE), a quiz (tree identification), and assorted materials along with websites & other resources.


For this market booth, we focused on composting with a hands-on demonstration.


     We are always looking for new strategies for the booth, hoping to get ideas from the general membership of how we can best connect with and reach more people in our community.  Have ideas or want to take a turn at staffing the booth…proudly being “the face of Greener Grove”  at the DG Market? Reach out to Carol at: info@greenergrove.org.



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