The MA State Senate: Plymouth Selectmen WITHDRAW RFP #21200: GRANT Market 2012 season

Why This Is Important

Support OUR Plymouth Farmers Market in Plymouth, MA 

Eight years of labor and love, community building and outreach, of local foods - fresh and prepared - of supporting WIC, the Council on Aging and SNAP (food stamps). Eight years of providing a venue for local musicians. Eight years of effort has created one of the very best farmers markets in the area, the Plymouth Farmers Market. All of this is now up for bid. There is no one more qualified than Barbara Anglin to manage the Plymouth Farmers Market. She has earned and deserves your support.

UPDATE: JANUARY 5, 2012 : CALL FOR ACTION!

Plymouth Board of Selectmen
11 Lincoln Street
Plymouth, MA 02360

We are writing as a group, representing the Plymouth Farmers’ Market. We have a simple and urgent request: withdraw RFP #21200, and grant the Special Events Permit for The Plymouth Farmers’ Market for Season 2012.

While RFP 21200 may be an earnest attempt to address present issues, it will, in fact, not resolve the broader issues of public space use for recurring special events and commercial endeavors, nor will it assure the continuity of the Plymouth Farmers’ Market. Instead, the Town should first revise the existing special event planning guide as put forth by the Plymouth Chamber of Commerce to include how to handle recurring special events, etc.

Specifically, the Plymouth Farmers’ Market cannot bid on RFP 21200 as presently written for the following reasons:

• Our market runs through the end of October; the RFP ends Oct 4, bypassing a prime harvest month.

• Our market has always sold ready-to-eat foods to meet our food literacy mission; the RFP restricts the sale of such foods.

• The Rule for Award, based solely on the “most financially advantageous offer”, discounts the non-monetary social and economic equities earned by the current market for the community.

• Market organizations administer the SNAP food stamp program by government contract; the RFP puts the responsibility on the individual vendors, an unfeasible financial burden.

• Our market is an LLC with an advisory group; the language requiring a board of directors in the RFP is limiting as not all markets are organized as corporations or non-profits, entities which require a BOD.

• For continuity, planning and investment, a farmers’ market needs the security of a contract that extends beyond the single year this RFP awards.

Furthermore if one of the purposes of the document is to provide others in the community an opportunity to host a farmers market on public land then it should not be restrictive to the specific locations, dates and times associated with only the current market. We feel strongly that it is not only unfair to put the successful template we have created out to public bid, but that other areas within the town could potentially warrant and support a farmers market – not just in the downtown.

We are certain that the Board of Selectmen and the Town Manager’s office have only the best intentions for the Market and the community it serves. However we believe this is a faulty document in that it attempts to set out rules and conditions for a farmers market without first revising the existing public land use policy. We respectfully request the RFP document be withdrawn and the market be granted a Special Events Permit for 2012. We recommend that by summer’s end a new land use policy be developed with the participation of present market management with advice from the Massachusetts Federation of Farmers Markets as it pertains to farmers’ markets held on public space as well as from interested town authorities and parties.

Our goal is simple: that the Plymouth Farmers’ Market grow and flourish within a newly revised, comprehensive land use policy established by the Town of Plymouth with due process and public input.

Your timely response will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

The Plymouth Farmers’ Market Advisory Group / advisorygroup@plymouthfarmersmarket.org

cc. Town Managers, Procurement Office, and Plymouth Chamber of Commerce, Mass Federation of Farmers’ Markets

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