The Mill City Times Interview: Brenda Langton, Founder and Development Director – Mill City Farmers Market

Article and photos by Becky Fillinger

For over 40 years, Brenda Langton has led the organic and healthy food movement in Minnesota through award winning restaurants and by founding the Mill City Farmers Market (MCFM). We sat down with her during the March 7th Winter Market.

Mill City Farmers Market founder Brenda Langton with Martha Archer, Executive Director and Jenny Heck, Market & Social Media Manager

MCT:  You’re the founder of the Mill City Farmers Market. Can you tell us more about the beginnings of the market in 2006?    

BL:  Actually, I was blessed with being able to ask for help from others to build the market. As I was building my new restaurant Spoonriver, I discovered the Chicago Plaza space and realized that it would be ideal for the MCFM. We’re very grateful for seed money that was provided by the Wedge Coop. I then went to work recruiting other people and sponsors to get it rolling and doing the work to make the market a reality.  

MCT: Did anything happen that you did not anticipate?

BL: Yes, the city didn’t want us to have a farmers market. We were going to have artists and other non-farmers as vendors at the market - items other than food - and the licensing and city officials didn’t know how to deal with us. They basically hoped that we would go away. We persevered because we knew that building a healthy community was the right thing to do at this location. We celebrate our 15th anniversary this year. We’ve seen tremendous growth in residential and commercial spaces in the area – which is terrific because the farmers need our support and people need fresh organic food. 

MCT:  Your earliest tagline was Healthy Foods, Local Farmers. Has your vision endured? 

BL:  It has endured. We’ve gone beyond just a tagline. We just updated our Strategic Plan for 2020-2023.  I’m pleased to share our new guiding principles:

• Farmers – Held farmers succeed because they are the foundation of our food system
• Market – Curate and sustain a vibrant, financially viable marketplace for all
• Programs – Empower a healthy community through experiential learning and access to nourishing food
• Partners – Advance the local regenerative food system through innovative leadership, strategic partnerships, and sustaining donors and stakeholders
• Capacity – Ensure that MSFM and MCFM-CF (Charitable Fund) are sustainable organizations with the financial and organizational capacity to support our mission and impact

The Market just doesn’t happen by magic each Saturday. We host over 5000 people a day in the summer. It takes a lot of planning to make it successful and financially viable and our team wants to be prepared for each individual market day, and also for the future. 

MCT:  “Spoonriver has never been just a restaurant.”  “Relationships have always been at the heart of our business. Our mission has been to build a healthier community through the meals we serve.” Is MCFM a way for you to sustain and grow the relationships built by your restaurants?

BL: Yes, I love to build community. I’ve worked directly with local producers and growers for over 40 years. I love to engage with all the different partner organizations that can lift up organic farming and healthy eating. Ultimately, we can only do what we can do in our community. The rest of the country is dealing with so much - I feel that by addressing local issues we can help our community work collaboratively on the issues closest to home.  

Jeff Nistler of Nistler Farms grows sweet corn, squash, melons and tomatoes. He also sells honey and quick breads, as pictured here.MCT:  How do you spot opportunities for innovation? 

BL:  I love reading, hearing and listening to anything that is regenerative to the soil. If it will help our climate and food producers, it is front and center with me. I learn something new and perhaps it combines with my prior knowledge for something new altogether. I try to get engaged with good organizations that are doing good and we can learn and work together. I’ve never been a person who lives in the past. It’s always forward for me.

MCT:  MCFM is clearly more than a traditional farmers market where consumers meet the local producers of their food. That is very important, but when I looked at the MCFM website I am surprised at all of the ancillary programs. Tell us about the other things that MCFM does.

BL:  I’m very proud of them. Other programs include:

Next Stage Grant – We designed the Next Stage Grant to provide funding to local, sustainable farmers and other food producers who experience hardship or are improving sustainable farming or growing toward the “next stage” of their local food businesses. We started this grant program in 2013. The inception of the Market’s Charitable Fund in 2017 has allowed the MCFM to nearly double its grant awards to over $122,000 in just two years and expand the pool of grantees to local farmers and food makers throughout the region.

One of our grants went to Prairie Hollow Farm. Pam Benike, the farmer, suffered a serious back injury. Our grant allowed her to purchase a standing potting table and a Japanese-designed Paper Pot Transplanter. We’ve learned that sustainable farming also includes sustaining the physical health of the farmers. With our $1800 grant, she is able to continue farming.*

We’re also purchasing CoolBot units for our vendors. Refrigeration is very expensive. Our farmers were throwing away (or leaving in the fields to rot) valuable product that could be saved with an inexpensive cooling unit. I want to buy one for every farmer! Flowers stay fresher longer, vegetables don’t wilt so easily, everyone comes out ahead with a little bit of inexpensive refrigeration.

Mill City Gives – This is our food donation, or “gleaning” program. MCFM has been working with volunteers from Augsburg University’s Campus Kitchen since 2013, collecting excess produce from farmers at the end of the market day. Farmers donate fruits and vegetables that didn’t sell, CSA boxes that didn’t get picked up, etc. Starting in 2018, we are able to compensate farmers for their donated product thanks to a generous sponsorship from Delta Dental. Volunteers collect over 5,000 pounds of MCFM produce that they deliver to families and individuals in low-income housing in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood. Any leftover produce is used in Campus Kitchen’s community garden lunch, the campus food shelf or for their Sunday night cooking class which teaches low-income and first-generation college students how to prepare healthy and delicious dishes using the fresh vegetables.

River, a MCFM day staff member, demonstrated a recipe at the March 7 market Mill City Cooks - Our goal is for every visitor to prepare at least one meal per week using ingredients from our farmers.  As part of this mission, MCFM offers free 20 to 30-minute professional cooking classes every Saturday between 10 and 11 AM. Classes are in the train shed patio area in the summer and across from the Information Booth in the winter. Today’s recipe is Mason Jar Vinaigrette. We encourage our guests to use #WeeklyMarketMeal to show us your meals.

Meet Your Vegetables - This is another of our experiential programs. It is a nutrition and public health internship in partnership with Allina Health. Designed for undergraduate students, interns work to create healthful, seasonal recipes to sample at the Market. They also complete a community engagement project focused on nutrition or food access. The internship requires a minimum of 120 hours, which is completed between May and October.  Students work alongside chefs, farmers, health care providers and non-profit professionals, giving them the opportunity for mentorship and career development in related fields.

Mill City Kids - Formerly called the Power of Produce, this free program teaches kids about healthy food choices and introduces them to farmers.  Kids ages 3-12 can sample a seasonal fruit or vegetable at the Mill City Farmers Market’s information booth.  After sampling, they earn a $2 market token that can be used to purchase produce at the market.

Zero Waste - In 2009, MCFM became the first Zero Waste Farmers Market in Minnesota! MCFM is proud to be a Zero Waste Market, where all the “waste” generated at the market from food sales, samples and events is composted or recycled. We have a 98% landfill diversion rate.

Community Booths – We are happy to offer other non-profits and local businesses space to share their good work through tabling at the market. MCFM receives lots of interest from local organizations interested in having a presence at the market, and we typically accommodate one or two organizations each week.  We give preference to healthy food, agriculture, cooking, environment, wellness and Mill District neighborhood organizations.

Heidi Skoog of Serious Jam at the March 7 market.

MCT: NPR published a study in 2019 that there were too few farmers to populate the market stalls and too few customers filling their bags with fresh produce at the 8600 nationwide markets, and as a result some markets were failing. Is the MCFM profitable? How healthy is the MCFM?      

BL: We are in relatively good financial health. MCFM lost a few sponsors and I working to recruit others.  Our Harvest Dinner in September is our annual fundraising event.  We fund our grants program with some of the proceeds from the dinner. We have vendor fees, which we want to keep low and the third leg of our financial picture is sponsorships. One of my jobs is to find ways to partner with vendors and sponsors in a meaningful way. An example is CoBank. Mike Romanowski, President of CoBank, is on our charitable fund board and the bank will be a sponsor of the market. CoBank is a national cooperative bank providing loans and other financial services to farmers, agribusinesses and rural power, water and communications providers in all 50 states. They have a knowledge sharing program that will benefit all of our farmers. Our interests intersect on many levels.   

We do measure visitors to the market.  We remain about the same year after year – we haven’t lost visitors. We have a very loyal clientele. We know that there is a notion that MCFM is expensive. If you buy organic, our pricing is in line with what you would find at a brick and mortar organic food grocer.

MCT:  How do you select the vendors for the MCFM? 

BL:  We have a Vendor Advisory Committee. We’re selective - we want the right mix. We curated the market from the beginning. We don’t want to offer too many of any one item, such as cheese. We’re currently looking for fruit vendors. We have a good mix because we’re thoughtful.  

MCT: Can you give us an update on the collaboration between Birchwood Cafe and the Minnesota Farmers Union (MFU) to open a new restaurant in the Spoonriver location?

BL: We’re very excited to see Birchwood and the MFU partnering again. It is not a new relationship – they collaborate at the Farmers Union Coffee Shop at the State Fair. The new Mill City restaurant will continue to build awareness of the need to support Minnesota farmers. I’m not helping with any part of it. They're all very capable business people and it should be open by the summer. MCFM looks forward to MFU as a sponsor.  

MCT:  How is social media handled for MCFM?  

BL:  Jenny Heck, Market and Social Media Manager – she handles our social media on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.

We’re looking for more people to help post on social media. We have so many stories to tell! If it helps the farmers, we welcome it. Please follow us and post photos and comments from your trips to the MCFM!

MCT: As a true local visionary, what’s next? 

BL:  I’m a Senior Fellow at the U’s Center for Spirituality and Healing. The next class will be offered next winter. I see myself consulting more in the future. Right now, I’m happy with the market and it is incredibly nice to have more free time for once in decades.   

MCT:  Other thoughts?

BL:  We’re very grateful that people meet their friends for coffee at the market. It’s fun here – the music, the coffee, the pleasant atmosphere. But we encourage them to also bring their shopping list. I guarantee the lettuce you buy here is going to taste a lot better than you find in traditional grocery stores, and you’re helping local farmers stay in business. 

*Mill City Times reached out Pam Benike of Prairie Hollow Farm. “A year ago I was trying to figure out how to spend the rest of my life and support my family if I could no longer farm. My surgeon told me that my back injury would not allow me to ever squat or bend in the future. I plant and grow year-round in hoop houses and in the ground. The grant from MCFM allowed me to have a future in farming. I can pot and plant standing up. The grant allowed me to continue in my livelihood. It was way more than the money – it was the idea that people cared about me and invested in my future.”

Pam Benike with a standing potting station.

Transplanter in use at Prairie Hollow Farm.

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About Becky Fillinger

I’ve been a resident of the Mill District only since July 2019, but have visited the Guthrie, the Farmers Market, restaurants and friends in the area for many years prior to making the leap to Minneapolis. I’ve lived in many places (and climates) in the US and can testify that our cultural events, bicycle and hiking trails, parks and green spaces, museums, diverse neighborhoods and wonderful restaurants put Minnesota and Minneapolis high on my best places list. I’m a member of the Mill City Singers and look forward to our choir practices and performances.

One of my main interests is community - a very broad concept. For me it means bringing people together with common interests to form meaningful relationships. I look forward to reporting on businesses and individuals in our neighborhoods. Feel free to drop me an email at becky_fillinger@hotmail.com with your thoughts and ideas for stories.