Regional Environmental Council

Our  Seeds of Success  series highlights the accomplishments and lessons-learned from  Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion Program (FMLFPP)  grant recipients. Learning from one another, we can build stronger local food systems across the nation.

The Regional Environmental Council Inc. (REC) is a grassroots non-profit organization focused on bringing people together to create a just and sustainable food system in the community of Worcester, Massachusetts and beyond. REC’s UGROW and YouthGROW programs support a network of over 60 urban gardens and farms, while their Farmers Market program supplies fresh produce across Worcester and its neighboring towns.  

Worcester, MA is New England’s 2nd largest city after Boston and holds a large immigrant and refugee resettlement community, welcoming people and cultures including Somalia, Bhutan, Burma, and Iraq. REC worked to build strong farmer and city development partnerships to better support these growing communities. In 2017, REC saw explosive growth in the demand for their farmers markets and mobile markets in the area. To capitalize on this momentum and grow their market capacity, REC applied for and received a  Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP)  grant in 2018 for $245,839 with the goals of expanding markets outside of Worcester, offering “off-season” coverage in the winter, increasing sales, establishing a cultural advisory board, and offering trainings to new farmers. REC hoped to reach low-income, youth, immigrant, and other non-conventional and beginning farmers through the grant project and celebrate a foodscape that is unique to Central Massachusetts.

During the 2018 FMPP grant period, REC: 

Focus group strategies can be tricky and take time to cultivate. With the growing interest in their farmers markets, REC saw the importance in keeping a pulse on market spaces. To accomplish this, Grace Sliwoski, Director of Programs at REC created the Customer Advisory Board to collect direct feedback from markets through focus groups in order to inform managers about customer satisfaction. She explains, “We wanted to ensure that the growth we were doing was still true to our values of having a market be culturally welcoming, reflective of our community, and foster spaces for food exchange in a positive way.” But when the pandemic hit, it became hard to keep the momentum of these focus groups alive. After assessing need areas, they relaunched the Customer Advisory Board in 2022 to target long-standing members in each mobile market location that have both professional and personal stakes in seeing their markets succeed. “I think it’s been a lot more effective,” Sliwoski states, “The board members have taken a high level of ownership and responsibility over their locations which has provided helpful ‘big picture’ feedback for us.” While the initial concept was effective, the relaunch allowed them to be more strategic in cultivating a stronger board structure. 

Success is about building partnerships and finding the right balance. REC has a pulse on the markets, farmers, and other sellers in the city and work to position themselves in ways that benefit all producers. When expanding into the Southbridge community, the REC’s farmers market coordinator worked to connect with existing vendors and negotiate times where the Mobile Market could source their produce in the region without conflicting with their business hours. It was important for them to make sure existing vendors feel comfortable with REC coming into the community. “Our environmental analysis was important,” Sliwoski states, “We never want to position ourselves in competition with local farmers and producers. We always want to build up markets and support them.”  

REC is currently working on expanding their online marketplace to offer more pick-up locations and times so that customers are given various options to access their products. This includes adding a pre-order option as another alternative for a faster, more efficient shopping experience. The organization is also conducting research on multilingual marketing practices to translate their web and print media for better language accessibility in their community.   

*The USDA is providing this story as a public service. The views expressed in the features do not necessarily reflect those of USDA.