Get Involved :: Volunteer
Volunteer
Many farmers' markets are run with the help of volunteers who love the experience of working at a farmers' market, contributing to their community and meeting new people. Volunteering is a great way to learn more about farmers' markets and food, help and encourage people to shop local, use your special talents and maybe pick up a new skill.
Volunteers are needed for a wide variety of tasks including set-up and tear-down on Market days, helping out at the market information tent, greeting customers, conducting customer counts and surveys, helping organize prize draws and other special events.
If you are interested in volunteering, please contact the Market Manager in your favourite market. You will get a warm welcome and the Manager will be able to match your interests and skills to a need in the Market.
Farmers' markets are supported by the many volunteers who donate their time to help the vendors. Why do they do this?
- It's fun!
- Great atmosphere!
- Meet a variety of interesting and enthusiastic people!
- Different than our 9 to 5 jobs!
- Promote the food community locally and in BC! It's the best—awesome!
- Support our organic BC growers!
—Mel & Harold – the "Tomato Man's" volunteers
Stories from Fabulous Market Volunteers
Maddy introduces Klipper's Organic Acres
"Hello everyone,
This is Maddy, a Local Farmer's Market Volunteer who wrote in a few weeks back to tell you all why I love volunteering at the markets. I volunteer specifically for Klipper's Organic Acres, or as you may know them, Kevin and Annamarie Klippenstein.
Today I want to tell you a little about this family and their farm so that you can get a better understanding of what buying from local farmers is all about.
Annamarie and Kevin both grew up in the farming community of Chilliwack. As young adults they dusted themselves off to move to the big city. But the bright lights of Vancouver couldn't hold a flame to the night sky in the rural areas outside of Vancouver, so off the two went to Cawston, BC to buy a 5 acre plot of land in 2001.
Those two worked hard at growing up an arsenal of delicious, 100% certified organic produce while building their current family of four children. As the farm grew, so did their farm tasks. Annamarie and Kevin joined the WWOOFing community, otherwise known as Willing Workers on Organic Farms. Now throughout the year the farm receives visitors from around the globe, from Japan to Germany.
These Willing Workers get accommodation and all you can eat food off the farm in return for helping Annamarie and Kevin plant, toil, collect, pick, load, store and maintain the 30 acres to which the farm has now grown.
Annamarie and Kevin spend their days at home harvesting the produce, packing the trucks and trailers, driving them to Vancouver, setting up food stalls at 6 different markets around Vancouver, then driving home.
But that is not all. At the end of the day, once the kids have returned from school, dinner is prepared fresh, then the kids are piled into the car. Annamarie and Kevin take the kids to soccer practice, where Annamarie is the volunteer coach for the girls team. I'm not joking… I have pictures to prove it. Kevin is a member of the volunteer fire department and at any moment leaves the field to attend a call. As if that is not enough Kevin is also on the Board for Your Local Farmer's Market Society and the Organic Farming Institute of B.C. Annamarie and Kevin live in a 36 hour day, I swear.
So come on down to Klipper's Organics at the Local Farmer's Markets:
Trout Lake or the West End (Comox street) on Saturdays
Kitsilano on Sundays
Riley Park on Wednesdays
Granville Island on Thursdays
And if any of you would like to volunteer at the markets or work on the farm: Contact Annamarie or Kevin at klippersorganics@nethop.net, or 1-250-499-2050."
—Maddy
Introducing Tomas Hicks, BC Farmers' Market Volunteer
"I love food, reconnecting with food, discovering about food, learning about food, growing/making/selling/teaching about food. Food represents life and the ever bountiful nature of Earth, and the circle of life and death on Earth. The Trout Lake Market is a weekly community centre for me, a place to see friends that I am unable to see due to city life, it is a place of appreciating the farmers' commitments to our world, health and community. Learning from their generosity that Nature has shown them throughout the years. Can I learn to be this generous, this bountiful? By being around the market I can incrementally strive towards that goal. What is fun for me? Food, how it grows, looks and tastes, and the health it confers to me, which I can then share with others."
—Tomas
Introducing Maddy, Volunteer, Your Local Farmers Markets...
"My name is Maddy and many of you may recognize me as the entertaining sales-gal at the Local Farmer's Markets. I am a volunteer with Klipper's Organic Acres and have done so for the past 4 years. I have volunteered at many market locations with Klipper's Organics (West End, Kits, Nat Bailey, the Winter Market), but most of you will know me as the West End tomato/apple/recipe lady (to clarify, I have never offered a recipe of tomatoes and apples together... hmmm... but maybe I should).
I volunteer at the Market for numerous reasons. Perhaps the first is to reconnect with the food I eat. Before volunteering for Klipper's Organics, I had extremely limited knowledge about how food is produced, the effort it requires to produce food, what foods are seasonal, and the best ways to store and prepare food. Many people who come to the Market have thanked me for sharing my newly gained knowledge with them.
I have enjoyed my learning so much that I have gone to Klipper's Organic Acres to volunteer on their farm on a number of occasions. If you buy any sweet Spanish Walla Walla onions from us this year, chances are you bought one that I planted myself. You have NO idea the backbreaking labour that job is! If you ever want to get revenge on someone, send them out to the farm to pick tomatoes bent over double in a dust storm while avoiding rattlesnakes and black widow spiders. Now I dare you to ask why they are $3.99 a pound!
Another reason why I volunteer is getting to know all of the vendors who produce their food and wares themselves. I don't know about you, but I love supporting local producers. The prices are comparable if not lower than commercial store prices, and you can rest your mind knowing that all of the profits go directly to the farmers/artisans.
Best of all, I love getting to know my neighbours and the members of each community I visit. Nowhere else in the city will you see such friendly gatherings of people taking their time to really appreciate their environment: the stands, the produce, the art, the music and the other market visitors. If you haven't had a chance to check out your local Farmer's Market yet, then now is the time. And if you swing by Klipper's when I am there (mostly Saturdays at the West End), I promise to tell you the yummiest seasonal secrets with recipes that will wow all of your friends!
See you at the Market!"
—Maddy
Introducing Gretchen Grabow, Volunteer, Trout Lake Market...
"I began to volunteer at the Trout Lake Market eight years ago. We set up the market's information tent, answer questions, sell raffle tickets, direct traffic away from the community centre's parking lot and at the end of the day take down the tent and store it at the community centre.
I also volunteer at the market and take time to shop at the market weekly because the market is congruent with my values. It is local. The vendors are local or nearby farmers, the artisans are local people and it is a community social gathering (I say I must comb my hair because I will see a lot of friends and people I admire!) I often combine my shopping with a walk around the park or a coffee with a friend.
I admire the staff and the vendors for the work they do and have a first name friendship/relationship with many folks. The market is in large part organic which is important to me because organic farming is healing of the earth. And it is small in scale.
The market is a counter balance to the big corporate scale of too much of our lives. I know people and they know me and I am supporting an alternative to the above corporate mentality. I try to live cooperatively with my neighbours.
Thank you for taking the time to read my story on volunteering. I invite you to share this story with other people who may be considering this role."
—Gretchen
Introducing Penny Lim, Volunteer, Trout Lake Market...
"Ah, Trout Lake Farmers Market. I admire the dedication and passion of farmers, their pleasant families and hard-working kids. Markets introduced me to such a vast array of fresh produce including beets — golden and striped, carrots gold or red, too; fresh garlic of long life; those Pemberton spuds; Hilltop's exotic Indian cucumbers, Indian bitter melon, crunchy Ambrosia apples; in addition to eggplants and tomatoes of all sorts. Goods hitherto unknown to me now most welcome in my diet.
As an artist, beyond happy nourishment for the body — the aesthetics gladden the eye also. Trout Lake features its very own ambience. An oasis to the market — Trout Lake is fun! Shop and picnic."
—Penny