The Camden Farmers Market, created in 2017 to bring healthier food to north Minneapolis, will move to the inner-ring suburb of Robbinsdale this summer.
Chaz Sandifer, a fitness instructor and co-owner of the Camden Farmers Market, proposed moving her market across the border for better visibility. The Robbinsdale City Council unanimously approved the plan for market year 2022. It will be renamed the Lakeview Terrace Market.
Robbinsdale, north Minneapolis' neighbor to the west, has never been able to sustain a professionally organized farmers market, even while destination markets flourished in the neighboring suburbs of Golden Valley, New Hope, Crystal and Brooklyn Center.
"We have had several attempts at a farmers market and I've been jealous of other communities that have been more successful," said Mayor Bill Blonigan during the council's last meeting of 2021. "You seem like a person that's more organized and experienced at this than the previous attempts that we've had, so thank you so much."
The Victory Neighborhood Association founded the Camden Farmers Market with a grant from United Way to address food disparities in north Minneapolis. In its first year, the market grew from about 75 visitors a week to an average of 400, with offerings of free guided fitness, a back-to-school backpack giveaway and a "knife-off" cooking competition, Sandifer said. The neighborhood association eventually signed the market over to her to operate.
In recent years, business declined due to COVID-19, civil unrest and difficulties finding a permanent location, Sandifer said. The market outgrew its first site on 44th and Penn avenues. It lost its second site in the North Market parking lot when the pandemic struck and the supermarket requested its space back. Customers had a hard time finding it after it moved to its third location behind Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church on Dupont Avenue.
"This will be great because of the visibility right on that main stretch when you're coming out of Minneapolis … and you're just right there at this beautiful lake," said Sandifer of the new location at the southern tip of Crystal Lake, across Bottineau Boulevard from Hy-Vee.
"I would like to see 40 to 50 vendors. I want to see it full. I want to see you guys have options. I want to see people have jobs," she told the Robbinsdale City Council. "A lot of people have lost a job and they've created their own income."
In 2001, Robbinsdale had a farmers market at the Hubbard Marketplace bus transfer facility. Located next to idling buses and blocked from view of the main streets, it lasted just a couple of summers, said City Manager Marcia Glick. Other farmers markets came and went.
Council Member Sheila Webb, a vegan who frequents surrounding communities' farmers markets in the summer, said she believes the timing is ideal for Robbinsdale to try again.
"When I think what's changing in Robbinsdale, I think we have younger families moving into the community, I think we have people that are more conscious about their health and wellness," she said. "Having a farmers market here is definitely going to increase access to fresh, healthy and affordable produce for all no matter your economic status."
Applications to be a vendor at the Lakeview Terrace Market will open in mid-January. Prospective sellers can sign up at thenewmpls.info.
Mariam Omari of K's Revolutionary Catering will follow Sandifer from Camden to Lakeview Terrace this summer. The Camden Farmers Market has been a key outlet for her and co-owner Kotiareen Taylor to pair their locally brewed Stay Well Tonic and meal prep on a budget demonstrations to Sandifer's fitness programming, Omari said.
Moving the market to Robbinsdale will help them connect with more north Minneapolis residents on the west side of town as well as diverse families that have increasingly flowed out into the northern suburbs as a result of gentrification, Omari said.
"We're all one big community," she said. "The customers that we already had, they're not really going that far out of the way. And then also the people that are in the lower section of North Minneapolis, they'll have more access because it's on that main road."
"We're excited to bring our mobile concession trailer, introduce that with some more demonstrations, and just get this party started."
