Downloads
Overview
A Massachusetts Farmers’ Market is a public market for the primary purpose of connecting, and mutually benefiting, Massachusetts farmers, communities and shoppers while promoting and selling products grown and raised by participating farmers.
This Farmers' Markets GIS layer is derived from the Farmers’ Markets database maintained by the Mass. Department of Agricultural Resources. The Department provides technical assistance to individuals and groups trying to start a farmers' market, helps farmers find appropriate farmers' markets to participate in, and encourages consumers to patronize farmers' markets through various publications, including the MassGrown Map, which also pulls data from the Farmers’ Markets database.
As well as basic information about the markets, this data layer includes information about participation in the food assistance programs Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) (see Attributes below). Women, Infants and Children Cash Value Vouchers (WIC-CVV) are not currently redeemable at farmers markets.
This data layer is named FARMERSMARKETS_PT.
Data Quality, Updates
The GIS data includes all known farmers markets. The vast majority of farmers’ markets accepts some combination of EBT-SNAP, WIC-CVV, or WIC and Senior Coupons, and are thereby included in the Department’s database. The department also sends out an annual survey to all known market managers, which captures most farmers' markets that do not participate in any of these three programs. There are still likely to be some markets that are created without DAR's knowledge, markets may discontinue, and attribute values will change. It may take some time for DAR to learn of these changes. Occasionally a market’s location is unknown and cannot be included. Once verified the market usually will be included in the next update.
The DAR database is updated continually, and the MassGIS layer is updated at least once per year. If you would like more up-to-date data, please contact Evan Marshall (see bottom of page).
There are four mobile farmers markets, based in Lowell, Somerville, Springfield, and Worcester. Only one location is included for each of these four markets. For more information about their other locations, contact David Webber (see bottom of page).
Attributes
The point layer's attribute table contains the following information:
| Field | Description |
| MARKET_ID | A unique market identifier. |
| NAME | The market’s name. |
| TYPE | A value of “Farmers Markets” in this field indicates the market is open during the growing season (aka “seasonal market”), while “Winter Markets” indicates the market is open during the winter. Although a seasonal market and a winter market may be in the same basic location, they are treated as separate features. |
| ADDR_1 | The street address or intersection of the market. |
| ADDR_2 | Additional descriptive information that may aid in locating the market precisely. |
| TOWN | The city/town where the market is located. This field contains some village names as well as official Municipality names. |
| ZIP_CODE | The market's ZIP Code. |
| DAY_TIME | Days and hours of operation. |
| DATES | The date range(s) within which the market expects to be open. |
| UPDATE_DAT | The most recent year in which data was received from the market’s manager. |
| YEAR_START | The first year of the market’s operation. |
| WEBSITE | The market’s website. |
| EBT | Indicates whether some vendors accept EBT-SNAP (Electronic Benefit Transfer for SNAP) payments. For more information go to https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/ebt/ |
| WIC_CVV | Women, Infants and Children Cash Value Vouchers have not been redeemable at farmers markets for about one year. These vouchers are not likely to be redeemable at farmers markets in the future, and this column will likely be dropped at the next update. |
| COUPONS | Indicates whether some vendors accept Senior FMNP (Farmers' Market Nutrition Program) and WIC FMNP coupons. Senior FMNP and WIC FMNP are separate programs, but participating farmers are certified for both under one umbrella certification. A null value indicates that coupons are not currently accepted, but they may be in the near future. |
| LONGITUDE and LATITUDE |
The data were collected using Google Maps, and then projected to Massachusetts State Plane Coordinates. |
| SNAP | Snap benefits accepted. |
| HIP | HIP accepted at the entire market or some individual vendors. |
Maintenance
DAR will provide updates to MassGIS at regular intervals.
General farmers’ market information can be found at https://www.mass.gov/farmers-market-program. For more information about dates, times, and locations of the farmers’ markets, or for more information about WIC and Senior FMNP, SNAP, or WIC CVV programs, contact David Webber, at 617-626-1754 or by email at david.webber@mass.gov. To obtain the most current data, contact Evan Marshall by email at evan.marshall2@mass.gov .