Reach Out for Partnerships
I was first enamored with food halls and public markets as a tourist. I enjoyed looking out for them, wherever I went. I enjoyed partaking of food which was reflective of the culture of the place. I loved taking pictures of the colorful array of local fruits and vegetables. I got excited as I sniffed around the meat and seafood stalls, finding unique items which were exotic for me. I also used the opportunity to chat with the vendors and to get their advice as to what to eat or buy.
As time passed, however, I read more and saw examples about how too much tourism negatively impacted the communities [3, 13]. As I went through my master’s program in urban planning, I also became aware of the negative impacts of gentrification [10, 21]. Once a place is successfully transformed into a more dynamic and creative one, businesses and higher income households move in and make it more expensive for the local residents to stay in the area.
I still believe that creating urban food experience like food halls is a helpful tool in improving a community’s dynamism and social engagement. However, in planning them, we must always ensure that the community’s needs are prioritized and that we reach out and develop partnerships.
Developing partnerships with community stakeholders is a good strategy to ensure adequate understanding of the community’s needs and ways with which to address them. It also helps the food hall deliver on higher levels of engagement, such as social integration and social capital among its residents [2, 11, 16, 20].
“Barcelona’s markets have changed from an interesting historical anomaly to the envy of cities all over the world. The model of public/private funding, of a market director who’s a city employee, partnered by a strong traders’ association, alongside the physical structure of stalls and market halls, is regarded as best practice for social regeneration. The city does well out of the markets, financially and in global reputation. Barcelona University offers degrees in municipal market management and administration. City planners visit from around the world.”
— Barcelona’s Market Forca
The Financial Times [13]
There are different types and levels of community engagement in planning for a capital project. These levels are: (1) communicate; (2) consult; (3) involve; and (4) collaborate [1]. Collaboration entails the maximum level of engagement. Under this level of engagement, planners secure the community’s inputs, looks for partnership with stakeholders, and include their inputs in the final decisions for the project [1, 23].
“‘I understand the question but I cannot imagine the answer. It’s a public service. It is a collaboration of the city with the private sector and the shoppers. I think it’s a good combination.’
But is there no political party that wants to sell the markets to the highest bidder and let market forces take their course? “No. I don’t think so,” says Blasi. “Things could change. But I think ours is a strong model and we must continue to promote it. We must keep up the same level of investment. During this administration we have invested €130m but the stallholders have invested around €150m.’”
— Barcelona’s Market Forca, The Financial Times [13]
To help expand collaboration, there are existing neighborhood groups which are already well organized and are representative of various groups in the community, especially the under represented ones [17-19, 22, 25].
At an early stage, communities can establish partnerships with the existing vendor or merchant associations and small business or entrepreneur organizations [5, 6, 18, 19]. For prepared food items, potential partners include chef organizations, cooking schools, and universities who have special culinary or culinary heritage programs [5, 6, 8, 15, 24]. For fresh produce items, partnerships can be developed with local farms, food cooperatives, schools, and community gardens [4, 6-8, 24]. There are a lot of nonprofit organizations and government agencies which can be sources of knowledge, training, and funding for specific target goals. These areas include renovation of the market building, food nutrition, the food SNAP program, small business entrepreneurship programs, etc. [4, 17-19, 24].
“Before reopening the (Union) market, EDENS (a private developer) engaged with longtime community members through sessions at nearby churches and schools. Through this process, EDENS learned about concerns over the market’s higher prices and implemented a requirement that all vendors accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. Union Market also prioritizes local hiring and training for low-skilled workers.”
— Urban Land Institute
Cultivating Development, Trends, and Opportunities at the Intersection of Food and Real Estate [4]
Findlay Market, Cincinnati:
Website page with a special focus on their partners and resources;
Image courtesy of the same website [6]
Communities can also look at the private sector for a possible partnership, with the municipality providing the building or property and a real estate developer infusing the funding and the expertise, as it relates to retail and food service management [4, 8]. This last option is however quite tricky, given the possibly conflicting objectives of the community and a private sector partner. Care must be taken in situations like these to ensure that community objectives are decided and clarified upfront and that the agreement includes clear measures of how to achieve community objectives, once the food hall is in operation [9, 10, 14, 21].
Communities can also reach out and partner with other private sector service providers for shared services which can support vendors, like marketing, publicity, promotion, accounting, tax advisory, human resource software management, etc. [6, 8, 26].
These partnerships are not only important during the planning process but should continue to be harnessed as the food hall operates. For example, partnerships can help increase the variety of healthy food options, work on specific ways to improve affordability (e.g. acceptance of SNAP coupons) and support entrepreneurship through commercial kitchen and incubation facilities. Other organizations can help a food hall increase social engagement through community-based events. The management of the food hall can also reach out to the community and secure feedback for other items like transportation accessibility [6, 12].
“To aid emerging local food ventures, Union Market partners with Mess Hall, a nearby culinary incubator, and the Washington based restaurant Ris on a business plan competition called Launch Pad. The winner of the competition has the opportunity to take over a space in the market for six to 12 months and receives free consulting services from industry leaders on how to grow the business. The winner of the 2014 competition gained immediate exposure and was able to expand into two new cities.”
— Urban Land Institute
Cultivating Development, Trends, and Opportunities at the Intersection of Food and Real Estate 2016 [4]
Findlay Market Cincinnati
Snap Plus Program; Image courtesy of the same website [7]
Communities have assets and resources in terms of organizations, nonprofit agencies, and private sector partnerships which can be tapped in the planning and operation of a food hall. Partnerships are essential because they increase participation and representation by various underrepresented sectors. Potential partners are experts who can bring in funding, information, and training for food hall programs that have worked well in the past. Working with partners increases participation and sets the base for building social capital for the community.
Sources:
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Kathe Callahan, 'Citizen Participation: Models and Methods', International Journal of Public Administration (2007).
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———, 'Food for the City, Food in the City', Architecture Design May/June 2005.
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———, 'Public Markets as Community Development Tools', Journal of Planning Education and Research, 28 (2008), 426-40.
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