When the club started the market, no one had any expectation that
The Capital Region Farmers’ Market has touched many lives, not just in the local community, but far and wide across the world.
The original idea was to establish a market as a community project that would:
- provide an outlet where farmers could sell their produce,
- become a place where customers could buy genuinely fresh produce,
- enable a regular source of income that the Rotary Club could use to fund worthy community locally, nationally and globally.
It has achieved all of this and much more. There are many stallholders that rely on the market for their family income. Many more started with a box or two of vegetables on one table, and now employ the entire family and arrive every Saturday with a truckload of produce.
Awards for 15 Years selling at the market
Eight of our original stallholders were there again on the day and each received a certificate for their 15 years of attendance.
Pictured with each recipient are current club President Janine Linklater with the first Market Manager, Rob Durie (in hat) and the current Rotary Club of Hall Market Director, John Kenworthy.
There are many regular visitors to the Capital Region Farmers’ Market. The Kallir Preece family, Christine, David and Matthew have been proud customers at the market since day one, only missing the market nine times in the past 15 years.
‘It is a Canberra institution and a part of our life’ they said.
What makes the Kallir Preece family’s relationship with the market extra special, is that, as fate would have it, their disabled son is one of the regular participants in the MULCH program which the Rotary Club of Hall has championed from inception.
Marymead’s Urban Land Community Harvest (MULCH) is a program in which participants with disabilities are assisted by carers to work in the vegetable garden where they learn new skills and enjoy a rewarding sense of belonging.
Recipients of regular funding from the market
The projects that the club has been able to support over the last 15 years are too innumerable to list here, but a few of the organisations that regularly receive financial support from the Rotary Club of Hall through funds raised through the Capital Region Farmers’ Market were on hand to discuss their projects.
Some of the recipient organisations that had displays at the 15th Birthday market included MULCH, Bernardos, Parkinson’s ACT and Abundant Water.
Past Rotary Club of Hall President, Dave Pentony (2002-2003) and one of the original stallholders, visited the market to catch up with some old friends. he brought one of the original market signs, to show how much the market has changed.
