According to a 2022 study from the University of Montana’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research, the goods and services offered on a typical Montana market day in 2021 saw contributions from 4,900 people working to grow, produce, and sell goods or operate the markets. That same year, farmers markets in the state raked in $17.3 million in revenue and spurred $10.4 million in new, indirect spending.
Perhaps they have been so successful because these markets’ missions put their sole emphasis on their community and its members. Here are three such operations to visit on your next trip to The Treasure State.
Gallatin Valley Farmers Market
The Gallatin Valley Farmers Market (GVFM), which held its summer market on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon this year and ran from June 15 through Sept. 14, has a home base at Haynes Pavilion at the Gallatin County Fairgrounds in Bozeman. The Big Sky Country State Fair also takes place there, and community volunteers constructed the pavilion.
It is fitting that such a community-focused location is the market’s home.
“I see the same people each week … it’s part of the community rhythm,” Adrienne Zimny, owner of the local organization Crochet for Play, appears on the market website. “It’s important to have access to locally grown food and handmade materials. I love to see the artwork everyone makes to sell — such an expression of love and beauty.”
Photo Courtesy Gallatin Valley Farmers Market
With more than 50 years and 500 market days under its belt, the market traces back to a small group in 1971 that launched it as the first of its kind in the town.
Now, it is a program belonging to the local Belgrade-based nonprofit Career Transitions (CT). Its goal is to provide workforce and community development and education so that individuals and the groups of which they are part can become self-sufficient.
Meanwhile, the market serves a different but related purpose: supporting local growers and vendors in developing their businesses in local growing, hand making, or home baking, and ultimately supporting their economic well-being.
“The GVFM really prides itself in acting as a safe place and a starting point for many businesses, so through this link between CT and the GVFM, we can fulfill our collaborative mission to help individuals and families find self-sustainment through home-based business,” the organization explained on the GVFM website.
Yet, through it all, it has embraced tradition and change, with a desire to follow its original calling while also keeping up with the community’s growth and diverse experiences and backgrounds.
Photo Courtesy Gallatin Valley Farmers Market
GVFM also hosts one large holiday market every November. Last year, it featured almost 90 vendors. A $1 donation was requested at entry, and the more than $500 raised went directly to Career Transitions to help the nonprofit keep its programming affordable for participants.
In 2022, it also hosted its first annual Kids’ Day alongside the farmers market. The event, featuring a bouncy castle, face painting, and a petting zoo, was the perfect opportunity for the whole family to enjoy the space.
Sometimes, the organization co-hosts a mini pop-up market at The Story Mansion. It is the historic home of the descendants of Nelson Story, who rode his horse from Montana to Texas in 1866 to lead a herd of 1,000 cattle back with him and later served as a fraternity house for Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Held in collaboration with Bozeman Recs & Parks and The Friends of the Story Mansion, proceeds from the market go back to the latter, whose mission is to “preserve and restore the Story Mansion and its grounds as a historic community gathering place.”
Photo Courtesy Gallatin Valley Farmers Market
The mission perhaps shines most in the market’s “Bid, Buy & Build Community” auction series. Featuring unique, one-of-a-kind goods donated by its vendors, all the money raised supports the nonprofit’s efforts to grow the farmers market and ultimately support small businesses in the area. Most recently, David Parker of Montana Planks spent 50 hours building a custom rocking horse named “Rascal” out of refurbished cedar planks for the auction.
Photo Courtesy Gallatin Valley Farmers’ Market
Columbia Falls Community Market
The Columbia Falls Community Market (CFCM), which operated on Thursdays from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m. from May through September this year, aims to form a “creative environment” for the local artists, craftsmen, farmers, and food vendors that sell there. Its charitable purpose is to support local businesses and civic groups and provide an open-air gathering space to enjoy music and food.
For example, every dollar donated to the nonprofit goes toward market operations and supporting these local entrepreneurs. As of Aug. 7, it brought in $483,520 in sales for vendors, as well as $31,000 in in-kind donations and $1,775 in cash donations for the market this year.
After a location switch halfway through the summer, CFCM occurs on a grassy lawn near St. Richard Catholic Church that it leased from the local Boys and Girls Club. Being Further away from the highway keeps attendees safer. It even features a sandbox for the kids to play in!
Photo Courtesy Columbia Falls Community Market
Not only has CFCM received endorsement from partners, including Flathead Valley Community College, Freedom Bank, and Kalispell Auto Group, and weekly market sponsors, including the Box of Rain Organic Garden Center, Glacier Guides and Montana Raft, and Hungry Horse Liquor Store, it also supports and promotes them in return. Providing locals with information about the community college gives them the tools to earn a new degree or enter a career path.
Other local organizations also benefit from participation in and partnership with the farmers market. A weekly market nonprofit shines a spotlight on important community presences.
This summer featured organizations, including the Boys & Girls Club of Glacier County and the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation, which supports education for young people, maintenance of trails, and restoration of habitats in the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex.
Dream Adaptive Recreation was also spotlighted. It provides lessons and opportunities for people living with disabilities to participate in activities like alpine skiing and snowboarding, biking, paddle sports, and motorized water sports.
Photo Courtesy Dream Adaptive Recreation Montana
CFCM also offers a lot of vendor support. It makes itself extremely amenable to kids who want to be vendors, providing flexibility on the number of weeks of commitment and encouraging participation.
It has also gone out of its way to use its social media accounts to promote the vendors and their needs, as well as to thank them for their support and participation. When local olive oil and vinegar store Genesis Kitchen needed a new team member, CFCM promoted the job posting on Facebook. When it received generous donations from Next Level Exteriors or Partain Paint & Stain, it also issued special thank you messages online.
More generally, the market has consistently used social media to raise awareness about current vendors’ produce and wares and upcoming vendors like Dixon Melons or to announce that Homestake Honey was the best seller of the month in September.
Photo Courtesy Columbia Falls Community Market
CFCM has also arranged and engaged in events to benefit the community at large. For example, it teamed up with Glacier Bank in August to “Stuff the Bus” with school supplies, providing an outlet for goods and financial donations to benefit local schoolchildren. It also accepts food donations brought from home or purchased from vendors for the Columbia Falls Food Bank.
Meanwhile, when a local physical therapist with four children was diagnosed with cancer and needed to go to an inpatient treatment clinic, the market held a raffle and silent auction to help cover his stay.
Photo Courtesy Columbia Falls Community Market
Whitefish Downtown Farmers Market
The Whitefish Downtown Farmers Market (WDFM) — held on Tuesdays from 5 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. from May 28 through Sept. 24 this year — combats corporate agriculture with a focus on family farms that “protect the soil because it sustains them.” Hosted by the downtown merchants association Heart of Whitefish and featuring local farmers, food trucks, and craft vendors, the market offers various goods and staples for the community. It provides a “vibrant hub of local goodness” in Depot Park in Whitefish.
WDFM has deep roots in that community, with a dedicated team of volunteers, some of whom have worked with the market for more than two decades. Rhonda Fitzgerald, the market founder and organizer, has been volunteering with the organization since 2003, with the help of her co-founder Nancy Svennungsen and sponsorships coordinator Terri Feury.
Photo Courtesy Whitefish Downtown Farmers Market
Every week, a different musical guest entertains attendees, backed by a local organization that acts as a music sponsor. These have ranged from Fleur Bake Shop to the Sprouts Children’s Boutique, both located in Whitefish.
Plus, since 2005, WDFM has released a special poster created by a different artist every year. Featuring scenes of market shopping or produce being carried away in carts and trucks, many of them remain available for $5 at the Market tent, encouraging attendees to collect them and contribute to the sustained success of the market.
Photo Courtesy Jen Frandsen, Whitefish Downtown Farmers Market
The market’s environmental efforts reach deeper than most of their peers. In 2020, it committed to becoming a zero-waste operation and launched its Zero Waste project.
The vision is to be a market that responsibly produces, consumes, reuses, and recovers all products, packaging, and materials without leaving anything behind to threaten the land, water, air, or the people and animals that depend on them.
It’s all done with the help of volunteers from Land to Hand Montana. The nonprofit has a vision of building a robust community food system that is ecologically sound, economically viable, and affordably accessible.
Primarily, WDFM has turned to composting all food scraps and containers to keep them out of the local landfill. As such, vendors are required to use only BPI-certified compostable products, packaging, and aluminum cans, and no single-use plastics are permitted. Dirt Rich, its composting partner, picks up these materials weekly from the market to turn them into compost, which farmers or local growers use to produce more food.
“It’s a sustainable way to maintain support [for] our community and steward local resources,” WDFM explains on its website.
Photo Courtesy Dirt Rich Composting and Pick Up Service
