Politics & Government

Farmers Market Motion Will be Revisited

A failed motion by Homewood's Village Board during their March 22 meeting to approve Bensidoun USA as the manager of Homewood's Farmers Market will be revisited, according to Mayor Rich Hofeld.

A failed motion during last Tuesday’s meeting by Homewood’s Village Board to approve Bensidoun USA as the new manager of Homewood’s Farmers Markets will be revisited during the board’s second meeting in April, according to Mayor Rich Hofeld.

At least one local Farmers Market vendor is enthused. Kate Duff co-spearheaded her business project, Homewood Kitchen Gardens, two years ago in response to Homewood’s Farmers Market.

Duff has participated as a vendor in the Farmers Market during the past two seasons. She was paying special attention to the outcome of last Tuesday’s village board meeting.

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"What came out (at the meeting) are a lot of the concerns that vendors had,” Duff said. “I felt that Bensidoun answered our questions.”

Some of the concerns raised at last Tuesday's meeing include the issue of vendor participation rate changes and the potential difficulty in competing with new, outside vendors.

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In response to the competition concerns, Bensidoun USA Midwest Market Manager Leslie Cahill was reassuring.

“We really have to look at it on a case-by-case basis,”  Cahill said. “We do like a little bit of competition, but for our company to succeed, the individual vendors have to succeed and the market has to grow, so we have to manage the whole situation very carefully.”

As for the rate concerns, the contract with Bensidoun was amended during the board meeting to include a guaranteed three-year fixed founders rate.

The current agreement was enough to convince Mayor Hofeld to support the motion’s approval. He harkened back to the inception of Homewood’s Farmers Market to draw perspective during the March 22 meeting.

“I sat on this board years ago as a trustee and encouraged the first farmers market,” Mayor Hofeld said. “At that time, the reasons were to have fresh produce available, to have a variety of products, to stimulate downtown traffic. The farmers market has been on a small scale and it’s done that, and this is even better, so I firmly encourage it.”

According to Hofeld, the motion will be revisited during Homewood’s April 26 board meeting.

“I think this is an exciting opportunity for the Village of Homewood and our residents,” Hofeld said.

But is the current situation enough to approve the motion next time around?

Duff thinks so.

“A majority of (local) vendors are behind the arrangement as it stands now,” Duff said. “I am pretty confident that (the motion) will get the support of the village board (when) it comes back.”


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