Madison residents and food vendors see value in Madison Public Market

Some 50 percent of Madison food vendors say they would like to expand their retail presences and would make use of a proposed public market, while members of the public say they would make use of a market if it were convenient and open at the right hours. 

The data came from project managers working on a proposed Madison Public Market. They presented them to the Madison Local Food Committee as part of a public discussion related to the drafting of a business plan for the market on March 31. The Local Food Committee approved the plan, including opting for a multi-use district rather than a single building model.

The team from Project for Public Spaces, Inc. (PPS) presented the results of community research. Phase I focuses primarily on the products and the people associated with the MPM, according to PPS Vice President Steve Davies. Starting in October 2013, it conducted individual interviews and focus groups, hosted public and vendor outreach events, and distributed an online public survey. Findings were based on 2,211 responses. 

PPS Senior Associate, and Project Manager of the MPM, Kelly Verel said that in addition to the vendors wanting to expand, organizations like the Wisconsin Food Hub Cooperative and FEED Kitchens signaled new development opportunities for the market. 

Overall, the challenges a market would face would be the capacity of small vendors to support another market, seasonal produce in the winter months, and the saturation of the Madison community with accessible food resources already. That said, MPM is a chance to create a shared space for Madison’s local food organizations to come together, according to Verel.

Local Food Committee member Anne Reynolds addressed the topic that local food is prevalent in Madison already.  “What do we do with that … do we need to be incredibly innovative?” she said.

In response to Reynolds, PPS Senior Associate Larry Lund said it is important to focus on acquiring a reliable food supply for the market and emphasizing the social opportunity of the market.

Lund, who is in charge of the Economic Feasibility Analysis for the MPM, presented the research findings about the people.  Since the 2,211 survey respondents participated voluntarily, they most likely have a vested interest in the market so they will be considered the “core” public group, according to Lund.

The research revealed that convenience is very important to the public, but “convenience means a lot of different things for people,” said Lund.  There is also a growing demand for ethnic and specialty foods in Madison.

“Cognitive dissonance” will be a challenge for this project, according to Lund, because people want high quality at low prices.

The research results also revealed that timeliness is a significant value for the lower income population in terms of accessibility of the market, according to Dan Kennelly, economic development specialist for the City of Madison.

Davies concluded the presentation with public market location implications based on the data collected.  PPS uses the Power of 10 principle, which means a major public space “should have at least 10 things to do,” as defined in the business plan draft.  Davies presented three multi-use public market examples: the Eastern Market in Detroit, the Rochester Public Market in New York, and the Santa Fe Farmers Market in New Mexico.

Following revisions, the plan will be forwarded to the Common Council with a recommendation to proceed to Phase II of the MPM project.