Background Research

This is a project of the East King Improvement District, which will actively manage and promote the market throughout the community. We’ll work with established and newly-formed cottage businesses that are looking for opportunities to sell their products and grow their businesses.

Eastern Market is an open-air neighborhood market outside the historic Eastern Market building, located on the corner of East King and Shippen Streets in the Historic East Side of Lancaster City this multi-cultural market will re-engage the location to its former role as hub of the community. The Eastern Market will be open to local farmers and food merchants to sell fresh and prepared foods indigenous to the many ethnicities that comprise the community. We’re interested in working with established and newly formed cottage businesses that are looking for opportunities to sell their product and grow their business.

Eastern Market emerged from a need for easy access to fresh, nutritious foods in the City of Lancaster. A comprehensive food study by EmPower Partners, LLC, reveals a large unmet grocery demand and an extraordinary opportunity to strengthen existing food stores in its study area, the City of Lancaster’s southeast and southwest. The study reveals a significant exodus of food dollars—of $854,000/week in grocery demand, only $155,000 is met within the study area; the City loses $32 million/year to outlying grocery stores. Focus group and community meetings held during this project’s planning stage have indicated a desire for grocery markets within walking distance; residents state they cannot easily travel to grocery stores, and they depend on neighborhood stores and mini-markets, where food prices are 30 to 100% higher. Such high prices, along with high unemployment, low wages, and poverty, have left over 13% of City residents dependent on food emergency programs.

The lack of fresh food outlets in cities is a national concern, and the repercussion of this deficient and unhealthy food system is an epidemic of diet-related diseases such as obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, the leading cause of death in Lancaster is heart disease, with diabetes, affecting a significant number of children, another major cause.

Clearly, sustainable and localized fresh food systems are needed to begin to mend this damage. To some degree, progress is being made in this direction, partly represented by the astounding growth of the organic food industry, with sales of organics growing between 17% and 21% each year. However, despite this growth in organics, many low-income consumers still have limited access to affordable fresh and healthy food and almost no access to organic foods. This suggests the emergence of two parallel food systems—one for the affluent and one for the poor.

According to a report by the Local Economy Center, “trends suggest that Lancaster’s food system is bifurcating and polarizing. One food system is oriented to relatively affluent consumers who are able to drive to the supermarket. Lower- and even some moderate-income households on the other hand, have diminishing access to fresh, affordable foods. Micro food systems, characterized by small neighborhood bodegas and corner stores relatively accessible by foot …have developed in Lancaster’s income-strapped neighborhoods where households tend not to have access to personal transportation and cannot easily travel to supermarkets. The pattern of their distribution along South Queen and South Prince Streets, and throughout the neighborhoods of the southeast and southwest, is a troubling reminder that the Southern Market traditionally served the food needs of these areas until it closed in 1987.”

The report also states that “in addition to being more expensive, small corner stores tend to carry more processed foods, with higher sugar, salt, and fat contents…they rarely carry a selection of fresh fruits and vegetables.” On the farming end of the food system, according to the Local Economy Center report, the number of Lancaster County Farms selling directly to consumers declined by 40% between 1997 and 2002.

The time is ripe for farmers’ markets in Pennsylvania. Cities and towns all across the United States are opening farmers’ markets. According to the USDA, between 1994 and 2004 our nation experienced a 110% jump in the number of farmers’ markets. Here in Pennsylvania, a recent poll conducted by Terry Madonna determined that 80% of Pennsylvania residents want more farmers’ markets here in our state.

Consultation for market start-up and operation has been provided by the Food Trust, an organization operating numerous farmers’ markets in the region, through a grant provided by PADCED. Additional partners in Lancaster include the Local Economy Center at Franklin & Marshall College, which will be offering professional evaluation services along with marketing research; the Kutztown Small Business Development Center, which will be advising on the development of business strategies; Community First Fund, which offers entrepreneurial business training and the opportunity for small business loans; and ASSETS Lancaster, which offers a business training program. See our partners and supporters page for more information about these organizations.