1. Boise Farmers Market detail

The Boise Farmers Market got greener in 2024 after piloting a 10-week commercial composting program that kept more than 600 gallons of waste out of landfills.

“On the days we had our green team out there, they reduced what went to the landfill by 20%,” executive director Amber Beierle said.

Increased composting is planned this year, again in partnership with a southwest Idaho recycling company.

Customer outreach will focus on waste that could be saved and composted, Beierle said. For vendors, planned fundraising aims to help them cover costs to test products for compostability and possibly shift to new versions of necessities such as packaging, plates, cups and spoons.

The ultimate goal is to be “a 100% sustainable market,” she said.

Coming off a year that exceeded expectations for overall market performance, one 2025 goal is to keep educating shoppers to “recognize that they can get the bulk of their grocery shopping done” at Boise Farmers Market “while keeping all of their money within the local community and provide not just an economic impact, but an environmental and locally conscious impact,” Beierle said.

The market’s community impact is the focus of outreach work done with help from a $100,000 USDA Farmers Market Promotion Program grant now in its second and final year. Plans in 2025 call for a video series, an event with education and donation opportunities, and more work to “demonstrate our value to the community and to educate the community to show that where you spend your dollars matters, and keeping dollars local matters,” she said.

The local-spending discussion will touch on “the ripple effect it has on agriculture, the environment and the overall health of our community,” Beierle said.

Population growth drives ongoing need to make the farmers market accessible to more customers and vendors.

BFM in 2024 partnered with Boise nonprofit City of Good to hold eight mobile-market events and increase weekly stops to 23, up from 16 the previous year.

Sites are selected based on need-related factors including distance from grocery stores. A food system grant sourced by American Rescue Plan Act funds is in its third and final year. An electric van purchased in 2024 will be further outfitted, Beierle said.

“We’re setting up to have the infrastructure to continue to provide local food to those in need while providing additional markets for our farmers and ranchers,” she said.

The market’s dollar-stretching Double Up Food Bucks program saw volume more than double in the past two years while a near doubling occurred in use of federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, Beierle said. “As Boise is growing, the need is growing. More people in the area are in need of financial assistance.”

On the vendor side, money from a donor-supported assistance fund created in the past year can be used to help cover one-time catastrophic losses or to support reduced weekly fees for qualified participants.

Market leaders aim to grow and increase participation in the vendor assistance fund, and ideally “provide more assistance to farmers who are struggling or have the need,” she said.