Regina Farmers’ Market has been the place to buy local in Regina, Saskatchewan (in Canada’s western provinces). In fact, it’s been a community food resource for 45 years and made the shift to a year-round market in 2019. Like many farmers markets around the world, they were hit hard when the COVID-19 closures began, leaving staff and vendors wondering how they could stay afloat, and maintain that crucial connection they’d built between small farms/local producers and their community. They quickly pivoted to the Local Food Marketplace platform – and we got to speak with Holly (the Executive Director) about that experience.

LFM: Hi Holly! So for those unfamiliar with your market, could you give us a little background?

Holly: Absolutely! We’re a nonprofit cooperative in Regina, Saskatchewan. We were founded in 1975 by a group of farmers, so we’ve got some really deep roots here in Regina – and a dedicated following of customers that look to us for their local food needs. We have about 120 vendors – were quite large, and each of those vendors has a different season and attendance schedule. We have two market locations that we alternate between throughout the year. During the summer months, our home is outdoors at City Square Plaza. Then, we move indoors after (Canadian!) Thanksgiving and we stay there until the end of April. When we’re outdoors we add an extra market day to our weekly schedule. We’re happy to have a wide variety of vendors and different products to discover at each market we host.

LFM: Sounds like there’s a pretty big community investment in your market!

Holly: It’s all about community. With the pandemic that’s happening right now it’s really shown us how strong our community is. We’ve been running our Home Delivery system entirely with volunteers (many of whom are our producers!). The producers drop their products off and then our little staff of 3 fill the customer orders. Then volunteer delivery drivers take the orders directly to customers’ homes. When talking about community I must give a shout out to our customers. They’re amazing! And they have truly embraced this online ordering project. Their support means so much to us and to the producers! It’s a really lovely little community we’ve got here in Regina.

LFM: How did you first hear about LFM, and what got you started using the platform?

Holly: Right when COVID-19 hit, we knew we needed to do something to ensure that our operations would continue. Providing local food to the citizens of Regina is what we do best – so how do we continue to do that? LFM was our answer to that. We investigated quite a few online ordering platforms but chose LFM as one of our directors had experience using it. So she’s the one that desreves full credit for introducing us – thanks, Pam! Once we saw first-hand the functionality with this system and what we could do with the software it was just an easy win for us, compared to what else was out there.

LFM: Was there a particular feature of LFM that really sold you?

Holly: We loved how much of it was automated; the pick list, producer payouts, and all the reporting that’s built in – it’s really nice. And the producers can log in and see exactly how many sales they have, they can update and adjust their inventory…all of that really comes in handy when you’re working with 120+ vendors. It makes it so much easier for our staff to do their jobs and ensure an excellent customer experience. It’s been a big shift with a lot of very interesting data for our organization to sift through. We’re getting to learn who our customers are, where they’re coming from, and who’s ordering each week. It’s a total game-changer for us.

LFM: We were going to ask – what has the reaction from your vendors been like?

Holly: Like any large group, there are going to be a lot of different opinions. Some producers were gung-ho, and they were right there with us from the start, even when we weren’t totally sure what this was going to look like. A lot of the early conversations were along the lines of “Okay folks, I don’t know all the answers but let’s all jump together and I know we can make this work!” After three full weeks of ordering, we have a lot of other producers coming up and saying “Hey, I talked to so-and-so and I hear it’s going really well…” and we’re delighted to get them started building their web store too. It IS working! We had our first full delivery day on April 11th and it went really well. On May 2nd we’re adding a pick-up option for customers too!

LFM: What has the reaction to the new system from your customers been like?

Holly: It’s all been really intuitive to them: how to place an order, add the items to your cart…it’s all been very smooth from the customer’s perspective. Folks have a lot of enthusiasm for what we’re doing, that’s for sure! It’s opened up a new customer base for us as well – folks who can’t make it in person to the market all the time can now order directly to their door step. Customers are loving it!

LFM: That’s awesome. So – last question, what would you say to a market that’s trying to stay afloat right now, and is thinking of moving online?

Holly: Look no further. We really had to pivot quickly to keep our market afloat and LFM has been with us through this whole project. We wanted to be sure we put a system in place that would make us more efficient and be a long term solution and LFM is definitely it! Additionally, the producers I’ve talked to really like using LFM. I don’t know if we could have launched our online store this quickly or done it this well without the help and support from the team at LFM. We’re grateful to all of you!