Managing a Successful Farmers Market: Harder Than It Looks!

An award-winning Farmers Market

The market was started by the former Director of Recreation and Parks, Howard Herman, in 1984. Under Mr. Herman’s leadership, the market won the American Farmland Trust’s national contest for America’s Favorite Farmers Market 2010, followed by other awards including being voted the best Farmers Market by readers of the Northern Virginia Magazine in 2022.

In 2022, Jennifer  Brady was chosen to succeed Mr. Herman as Market Manager based on her experience managing three different markets in Loudon County. She is aided in the weekly endeavor by two sturdy maintenance staff, Liam Andrews and Larry. Under her leadership, the market achieved Gold certification from the Virginia Farmers Market Association in 2024. The market has also maintained its standing among the best farmers markets in northern Virginia every year.

Today, the year-round market has about 50 vendors in the main season and about 40 in the winter season. What sets this market apart are these reliable and high-quality vendors, and the market’s location next to the Cherry Hill Farmhouse and Park. It is not unusual to see children strolling through the market unaccompanied. Families often spend the morning visiting the market and then picnicking in the park with the food they have purchased.

Goals of the Farmers Market

“At the heart of the Farmers Market is supporting small farms in this country … for farmers in this market, this is the part of their livelihood that is dependable and reliable.”  – Market Manager Jennifer Brady

The Falls Church market has three stated goals:

1. To provide access to locally grown and made food to all in the community.
2. To provide opportunities for farmers and food producers to successfully sell their products.
3. To contribute to creating a healthy and vibrant community.

Ensuring that foods are local

Providing locally grown and made food requires that vendors grow harvest, and make everything themselves within 125 miles of Falls Church. Bakers, cooks, and sausage-makers should preferably use locally sourced ingredients. Ms. Brady visits the farms or facilities of potential vendors and tastes any food they plan to offer. Food safety certification, licensing, and insurance all need to be checked. It is also her job to investigate claims of vendors violating these rules.

Ms. Brady has visited 13 of the 21 current farm vendors, an experience she and her family enjoy.

Marketing the market

For the Farmers Market to be successful, there must be customers – lots of customers. Today, that means being active on social media. The Market Manager posts regularly to Instagram and Facebook, and the City communications office also helps promote market events on its sites. Ms. Brady encourages vendors to be on social media and favors new vendors who have a social media presence.

Vendors are very appreciative of the photos and social media posts that highlight their produce. They say that social media outreach significantly boosts customer growth. The consistent social media presence has been instrumental in informing customers about weather events, construction, or other activities that impact the market.

The tricky business of vendor selection

Some farmers markets have morphed into street food markets. We are fortunate that the Falls Church Farmers Market has many farm vendors. The mix of vendors defines the character of the market.

The Market Manager has a list of potential vendors. However, they are not added on a first-come, first-served basis. Instead, Ms. Brady considers the existing mix in her decision. Given past successes, she gives priority to returning vendors each season to maintain the right balance.

A few vendors do decide not to return each season, creating opportunities for new vendors to be added. It is the Market Manager’s responsibility to carefully select new vendors who will sustain and enhance the character of the market overall.

The second goal of the market is to ensure that vendors have the opportunity to be financially successful. That includes not having too many similar vendors so that they cannibalize each other. For example, there may not be enough demand for a second coffee vendor so that having two coffee vendors may cause both to fail. But if the market’s only cheese vendor is leaving, and there isn’t one on the waiting list, she searches for a new cheese vendor to bring into the market.

Not all locations in the Farmers Market are equally desirable. The sidewalk stands along Park Avenue typically get less traffic, and Ms. Brady is upfront with this information to vendors. However, a strong vendor in that location can change the traffic pattern so that other vendors benefit as well. This appears to have happened when Little City Bagels joined the Farmers Market at a sidewalk stand. Ms. Brady evaluates the potential for a vendor to be financially successful, as well as the vendor’s contribution to the market as a whole.

Planning a weekly community event

To achieve the third goal of contributing to the community, the Market Manager works to make the market not just a place to buy food, but also a meeting place where families and friends relax and have fun, and for community groups to conduct outreach.

To create a festive atmosphere, there are two music spaces where groups can sign up to perform for tips. Each Saturday, children search the stands for the market Bee while their parents shop. Periodically, there are balloon animal makers, magic shows, exercise sessions on the green, and other special events.

Non-profit groups can set up stands at the Farmers Market. The Master Gardeners of Fairfax are available during the summer to answer gardening questions. The Village Preservation and Improvement Society provides information about events in the City and promotes environmental sustainability. Falls Church Arts sells member artworks at the market. During the election season, candidates and political parties are usually present to share their messages and talk with potential voters.

Making fresh produce accessible to all

Farmers Market produce is high quality but can be pricey. To make the market accessible to more people, the Falls Church market participates in the Virginia Fresh Match program. The program matches the value of SNAP/EBT benefits with market coupons, up to $40 per day, for families to purchase fruits and vegetables at the market. These coupons do not have expiration dates. More information is available here.

Further, the Farm Market Fresh program provides low-income seniors (60+) and the US Department of Agriculture’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) participants with $50 of coupons per year to purchase produce at the Farmers Market.

At the end of the market day, some vendors donate their unsold produce to local food banks. The Gleaning Partnership is a group of volunteers that collects and delivers food donations.

Challenges in running the market

With so many people attending the market in all kinds of weather, safety and security precautions have been established. They include tent weights, propane/generator rules, spacing rules, barricades, first-aid kits, and inclement weather policies. There are also lost children and items to take care of.

Then there are the one-off but significant disruptions such as the construction of a new geothermal based HVAC system at the Community Center that closed off parking lots. Future disruptions include the Park Avenue Great Streets Project.

Parking, or rather the lack thereof, is a big issue for the market. Some office parking lots that were once available to customers are now closed off. The Market Manager must placate angry business owners when market visitors park in their lots. There is parking at the Kaiser Permanente garage, but visitors prefer to park on neighborhood streets. If visitors cannot find convenient parking, they leave. New visitors are often not aware of the predatory towing practices in town, but they soon learn!

Looking to the future

Ms. Brady would also like to set up a committee to advise on the selection of vendors. Predicting and deciding whether a vendor will be good for the market and vice versa is a complicated affair that may carry unforeseen risks.

West Falls has approached Ms. Brady to explore setting up a farmers market in that development. Falls Church Forward, a civic group, would like to see the market expand in its current location, perhaps by blocking off sections of Park Avenue, to allow more local businesses to participate.

Next time you go to the Farmers Market, be sure to look for Market Manager Jennifer Brady and her helpers, Liam and Larry, while the kids search for the market Bee.

Reference

Recreation and Parks Advisory Board meeting on November 12, 2025. This official video will not display properly on a small screen as it contains the agenda.