Sitka Local Foods Network monthly newsletter for August 2022

Sitka Farmers Market hits midway point

The Sitka Farmers Market will host the fourth of its seven markets this season from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 13, at the Alaska Native Brotherhood Founders Hall. Aug. 7-13 is National Farmers Market Week this year, so come to the market and help us celebrate.

This is our 15th season of Sitka Farmers Markets, and after two years away due to Covid-19 we are back at ANB Founders Hall, where we hosted our first 12 seasons of the markets. We hosted three markets in July — on July 2, July 16, and July 30 — and you can click on the dates to see some scenes from each market. After our market this Saturday, we have three more scheduled — on Aug. 27, Sept. 10, and Sept. 24.

The online vendor registration page, http://sitkafarmersmarket.eventsmart.com, is live and ready for vendors to sign up and pre-pay for their market spots. This annual community event is hosted by the Sitka Local Foods Network, a nonprofit working to improve Sitka and Southeast Alaska’s food security.

Since Sitka still has been at the High-Risk level for Covid-19 for most of the summer, we ask people to wear masks at the markets. If we are at High, masks will be required inside ANB Founders Hall. If we drop to Medium, masks are still encouraged.

All vendors will pay $40 per market, regardless of whether you have a table or a food truck. Vendors can register for one or more of the markets. To guarantee space, we ask all vendors to register by the Thursday morning before each market.

The Sitka Farmers Market is a community event hosted by the Sitka Local Foods Network, whose mission is to increase the amount of locally produced and harvested food in the diets of Southeast Alaskans. Our focus is on local — fresh produce, fish, baked goods, prepared foods, cottage foods, arts and crafts — and all products must be made in Alaska (preferably in Sitka or Southeast Alaska, cooked foods may use non-local foods so long as the food is cooked on site). Since our mission is geared toward food security and our space is limited this year, if we have too many vendors try to register our food booths will have a higher priority over arts and crafts.

Click this link to learn more about the markets. Click this link to register as a vendor. We also are looking for volunteers to help out with the markets, and you can learn more here. Don't forget to vote for the Sitka Farmers Market in the 14th annual America's Farmers Market Celebration contest.

Support us by buying a t-shirt or hoodie

Want to support the Sitka Local Foods Network as we try to improve food security in Sitka? Buy a t-shirt or hoodie from our new online store. Proceeds from the fundraiser will help us as we grow fresh local produce at St. Peter's Fellowship Farm communal garden, hosting the Sitka Farmers Market, sponsoring the Sitka Food Business Innovation Contest, and connecting Sitka residents to gardening, cooking, and food preservation education opportunities. Ordering our shirts is easy, you do it online and they ship directly to your home (note, on the logos with different types of shirts shown you might have to scroll to the side to see more versions). We also recently added updated versions of the special logo design Sitka Farmers Market t-shirts from Lisa Teas Conaway, which include Chatham Strait Carrots, Biorka Beets, Redoubt Rhubarb, Kruzof Kale, and Sitka Sound Strawberries. These make great holiday gifts, too. For more details, click this link.

2022 sponsorship program opens

The 2022 Sitka Local Foods Network sponsorship program has opened. Businesses and individuals are encouraged to contribute to help us keep our programs going and fulfill our mission of increasing the amount of locally harvested and produced foods in the diets of Southeast Alaskans. Your donations help us host the Sitka Farmers Market, grow food at St. Peter's Fellowship Farm (we ordered new high tunnels, at about $5,000 each, in 2020 and 2021 so we can grow more produce for the markets), provide garden education classes in the spring, and sponsor the Sitka Food Business Innovation Contest. Food security is a tenuous thing in Sitka, and we're trying to do our part to improve our community food security.

We thank the Alaska Comprehensive Cancer Control Partnership, the Alaska Food Policy Council, the Alaska Community Foundation, Sitka Salmon Shares 1 Percent For The Wild Fund, the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC), Sitka White Elephant Shop (White E), ALPS Federal Credit Union, Alaska Farmers Markets Association, GCI Gives, Sea Mart and Market Center, the employees of First National Bank Alaska, Harry Race/White's Inc., Fish and Family Seafoods, Sitka True Value, and the Skaggs Foundation for donating in 2022. In addition, we thank David and Margaret Steward, Amanda Anjum, Linda Schmidt, Charles Bingham, and our other individual donors for their support. To learn more about our sponsorship program, click this link.

Like local food? Join our board of directors

Did you enjoy the fresh local veggies at the Sitka Farmers Market this summer? Did you take one of our garden education classes this spring? Do you have an interest in getting more access to locally grown, harvested and produced food, and an interest in food security? If so, please consider joining our board of directors. We need new board members to keep offering these programs, and we'd love to have you join us. We need board members to keep things going, and volunteers to help with the Sitka Farmers Market and growing food at St. Peter's Fellowship Farm. If we don't find new board members, we may have to scale back our programs.

For more details, please click this link . This page has links to our board job descriptions and applications. Our next online board meeting will be at a time and date TBA (we generally don't meet often during the summer). Due to COVID-19 coronavirus health concerns and the need to social-distance, we will meet using Zoom online meetings (email us at the address below for a meeting link). Feel free to check us out. Our meetings are open to the public. For details and a meeting link, contact SLFN board president Charles Bingham at 907-623-7660 or sitkalocalfoodsnetwork@gmail.com.