When a Community gets Together

At the beginning of February our suburb launched a "Residents Association" in order to have a body of people who acted on behalf of our suburb's community.  There was a BBQ and an "Ideas Clothesline" where everyone pinned with pegs their ideas of what they would like to see in our suburb.  Things like our own Library, Swimming Pool, better parks for kids, live bands, outdoor concerts, movies etc. to name a few. One of the items that was on the top of everyone's wish lists was to have our own "Farmers Markets".

After the Launch happened a meeting was held for residents about 5 weeks later to discuss all the ideas put forward for the suburb and what people wanted in their community.  We focused on the top 5 things and had round table discussions for 30 minutes before the bell went and we moved to the next table to discuss and give our input and ideas.  I took the kids along and they were a great help to what they wanted when it came to the "parks and recreation" topic.

Whilst we all have our "wish lists" in mind some things require lots of money and some things require lots of organization.  For instance a local swimming pool would require firstly to find a large vacant space for said pool and millions of dollars to build it however starting our own "Farmers Markets" is something that can be done a little more easily.  Expressions of interests were requested and I understand there were two main contenders in the early stages however there could have been more.   The running of the market was given to a family who have run Farmers Markets "not for profit" for many years now and are a few suburbs over and they came to speak to the residents about what they could offer.

I'm so excited as it's local and the profits go back into our community projects.  In today's society in the city suburbs where people work all hours and don't know their neighbours I'm thrilled to think that our "Residents Association" have listened to the people and acted and within 5 months from that BBQ Launch we have our local Farmers Markets up and running which will be fortnightly.  I could imagine this happening in a small local country town but to happen in a suburb in Brisbane I think that's pretty awesome.  I love the fact that they are fortnightly because once a month shopping for fruit and veg sends you back to the supermarket for the other 29 days so a fortnight market is going to be much better to get the maximum benefit from them and also the farmers/growers/creators.

Last Sunday was the launch of the Farmers Market in our suburb with over 70 stall holders all farmers, or their families or crafts people who make the goods.  There are no middle men and no one buying second hand produce from the veggie markets and on-selling it.  They are the farmers/growers/creators themselves.

Here's some pictures of our first local Farmers Market.