ONANCOCK, VA - Winter produce will have a permanent home in Onancock's Farmers Market. The town has been awarded nearly $32,000 through Virginia's Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development (AFID) Fund Infrastructure Grant program.
Governor Glen Youngkin announced which projects in the Commonwealth would receive funds on March 5. The town will use the grant money to fund the purchase of a prefabricated building to house the Winter Onancock Market.
"I see a lot of it from the vendor standpoint," Onancock Market Manager Theresa Van Dessel said. "Just to be able to have a year-round income allows them to have a sustainable business."
Vendors first approached organizers about launching the winter market in 2020. Since then, the seasonal market has operated in a donated space on the first level of a building on Main Street. Market Volunteer and grant writer Janet Fosque said they knew this was a temporary arrangement from the start.
"It's not reasonable to assume that building owners are going to be able to keep giving us empty spaces," Fosque said.
Market organizers began working towards a more permanent situation in May of last year after the owner of their current location informed them that the building would be developed.
Fosque said it did not take long to identify funding opportunities. Last summer, the community raised $16,000 to qualify for the AFID matching grant.
"Every single artisan and food vendor donated their products so that we could have raffles every single month during the summer," Fosque said.
Now, nine months later, Fosque said their hard work is paying off. The initial cost of the building will eat up the vast majority of the grant.
"It will come needing insulation and interior walls and interior floors," Fosque said. "We've got a lot of volunteers for that."
The building should arrive 2 months after it is ordered. Organizers plan to use the summer months to prepare it for the next winter market on December 1.
"We will be able to customize the space to best suit the needs of the vendors and the customers," Van Dessel said. "As we've been working on the plans, we definitely see quite a bit of room for ... expansion and streamlining things."
Onancock Market and the Town Council collaborated to find a central location for the new market building. They chose the Queen Street parking lot. The upcoming summer market will also move across the street from its previous location to the Queen Street lot.