HISTORIC LEWES FARMERS MARKET SOCIETY INC

Programs

1. First accomplishment: farmers market: in 2025, the hlfm (historic lewes farmers market) continued to operate two farmers markets in lewes, one every saturday from may to december and one every wednesday from june-september. These markets provide an accessible, family-friendly community gathering place where consumers may purchase the freshest local foods available directly from local producers. Consumers have the opportunity to learn directly from the farmer how their food is grown/raised, and about the importance of sustainable agriculture in terms of nutritional value. The market also gives small, local farmers/producers an outlet for their products and an opportunity to meet with each other and with the hlfm market team to share ideas and learn best practices on organic and sustainable agriculture and direct marketing. The hlfm organizes weekly demonstrations provided by local chefs, farmers, master gardeners and healthcare professionals designed to educate consumers about healthy lifestyles, cooking techniques and healthy recipes. Also, as part of the market, the hlfm organizes a gleaning program where they take donations of extra produce from vendors at the end of each…

   $261,935 spent$127,444 earned by the program
   55% of program spending

2. Second accomplishment: farmer scholarships: the hlfm awarded seven scholarships totaling 3,060 to small delmarva farmers in 2025, enabling them to attend sustainable farming conferences, including the future harvest casa annual conference and the pasa sustainable agriculture conference. These conferences draw farmers interested in education about sustainable agriculture practices from a broad section of the east coast, mid-atlantic, and the south with similar growing conditions to the delmarva.

   $3,060 spentof which $3,060 as grants
   1% of program spending

3. Third accomplishmenthlfm food access programs snap/ebt: the hlfm provides access to healthy local food for low-income or underserved local residents by coordinating vendor participation in accepting snap (supplemental nutrition assistance program) ebt at the market. The hlfm also provides matching dollars to help snap recipients stretch their dollars to purchase local, fresh, nutritious foods. The historic lewes farmers market matches up to 20 in tokens for snap/ebt used at the market. This 20 match is for every snap customer, every market. The historic lewes farmers market also does outreach to let snap participants know about the healthy food that can be purchased with the match at the hlfm markets

   $8,803 spent$3,972 earned by the program
   2% of program spending

4. Food pantry purchase program: this program benefits both local small family farms and low-income local residents. The market provides funds to pay the small farmers in the market to supply fresh local food which is donated to a large, local food pantry run by the epworth united methodist church in rehoboth beach, delaware. Both the farmers and those without access to fresh local produce, dairy, and meat, benefit. In 2025, the hlfm procured 23,992 worth of food for the epworth food pantry through this program at the saturday market, including directly purchasing 14,150 of fresh local food from farmers, and thanks to a 10,000 grant from the carl m. Freeman foundation. Farm to community program: in 2023, the historic lewes farmers market was chosen as the sussex county partner by the delaware department of agriculture in the local food purchase assistance cooperative agreement program called farm to community. As the sussex county project partner in this two-year pilot program, the historic lewes farmers market received a subaward of 420,000 to procure, aggregate, and distribute produce, meat, eggs, and dairy from delaware small farmers and other local sources to food pantries across…

   $200,434 spent
   42% of program spending

The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $474,232.