A s the Maple Valley Farmer’s Market heads into its fourth year, organizers continue to seek new vendors — and they are looking for someone local to run the show on Saturday mornings.
The Market Day Supervisor will work seven hours on Saturday mornings and early afternoons during the farmer’s market season, which this year runs from June 16 to Oct. 6. The supervisor will need three more hours during the week to complete paperwork. The farmer’s market board will take applications for the supervisor position until Friday, March 30.
“We want this job to be local,” says Victoria Laise Jonas, who has been the market manager since it began in 2009.
In the first two years, market board members performed the supervisor’s duties, which include coordinating vendor set up and take down, overseeing volunteers, and keeping track of finances. Last year, the board hired a supervisor, but she is moving out of state.
The Maple Valley Farmer’s Market, which operates from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., attracts more visitors each year, growing from fewer than 1,000 in the first two years to more than 1,350 on average each Saturday last year. As the market has become established, Jonas says, shoppers “make it part of their weekend activity, their Saturday morning.”
The market also has developed a solid reputation among vendors, who have told Jonas that they like the market’s weekly focus on a theme or special event. She hopes to bring in more than 40 vendors this year. The market offers handcrafted items as well as food, with the requirement that most of the product is made or grown in Washington. Vendor applications are due April 16.
One frequently requested item that has been missing recently from the market is fresh seafood, Jonas says. The Shelton-based vendor who sold seafood the first and second years of the market has closed down its business, and Jonas has not been able to find a replacement.
“I’m actually thinking of going down to Ballard where all the fishing boats come in and passing out my card,” Jonas says. “I do some crazy things sometimes to get vendors to come to the market.”
To read more about the Market Day Supervisor position, see the posting on the market’s Facebook page HERE, or email Jonas at info@maplevalleyfarmersmarket.org.
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Love the farmer’s market. I really think they need to cut a deal with Fred Meyer’s to move the market to the outer parts of the parking lot there. More room for vendors and parking and many people would go to Fred Meyers before or after. Be a win-win for everyone. The current location is getting a bit cramped.