March 2026 Local Growers Meeting
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Attending: MaryJayne and Joe (Wild Notion Farm), Jay and Jordan Two-fold Farm), Julie Burger (Burger’s Farm Market), Lisa Krug (Endless Roots Farm), May Murphy (Murphy’s Family Homestead), Donna Vannan (Maximum Zen Bakery), Wendy Gloffke.
“Local area” is defined as Bradford, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Sullivan, Susquehanna, and Wyoming counties
PDF of the Agenda and Buyers Guide Outline we reviewed in person together.
Key Takeaways
Lists and resources relating to local food already exist, but are not aggregated in a useful way
State, regional, local, and tourism groups have compiled selected lists of local food related sites; we can identify those that are relevant and add to our database
Social media sites for local groups and producers exist, but are isolated and do not create a pathway to connect with other producers or local food sites
Some local producers have created small networks, for example, there are 7 farms within a 4 mile radius of the Burger farm
Many information and social media sites are not updated
Local food events may not be advertised broadly
Local producers are enthusiastic about connecting with other producers
Producers are eager to connect with other producers outside of the marketing/consumer facing sphere
Many local producers are not aware of who is out there and what they are doing
Connections are often made via 3rd parties, however, the participants were very interested in face-to-face or possibly Zoom meetings during off-seasons times
Producer interest in direct consumer contact and scale of operations vary
Interest in connecting directly with consumers spans the spectrum from no direct consumer to bringing as many consumers as possible to a site or physical location
Production capacity and scale, target markets, and objectives vary
Many participants are interested in obtaining local grains
Action Items
Refine and deploy participant survey
Add question to separate growers/producers from buyers (e.g. Hubs, restaurants, etc.)
Add question about what educational needs the group has (e.g., operational. practices, government programs, navigating systems, etc.)
Continue to identify and aggregate local producers and resources to build a database of participants in a local food network
Local, regional, state, tourism, and other organizations already list some of these; identify and add to database
PA Farm Bureau (Farm Trail app), PA Vegetable Growers Association, Wayne County Growers, Visit NEPA, PA Preferred, Wyoming County Tourist Bureau,
Identify gaps in the information and resource landscape and opportunities for us to fill them
Public education linked to access points; PA Farm Bureau events (4 times per year), schools
Local grains
Develop concept and content for a 12-16-page insert to be included with a mid-June print and digital edition of the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader newspaper
Meeting Agenda
Meeting Time: 6:30 pm on Monday, March 30th
Meeting Location: Abington Community Library, 1200 West Grove St. Clarks Summit, PA 18411
Meeting Overview: We’ll work collaboratively to begin a grown-local Northeastern PA guide that meets the unique needs of our local food community.
Project Goal: Make it easier and more convenient for local consumers and restaurants to discover and buy locally grown food and agricultural products (wine, honey, jam, etc). This is intended to address the convenience challenges and also the education needs identified in our February 2026 growers meeting. When we all met together in February, we realized how many local food resources existed that we ourselves didn’t even know about- we only know what we know, so let's make it easier for more people to know more about the agricultural resources available locally. Inspired by other food guides, we’ll use our March meeting to begin developing a guide to local farm products, food hubs, and farmers markets in the following counties: Bradford, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Susquehanna, and Wyoming. All local food producers in these counties are enthusiastically invited to participate.
Meeting Agenda:
What will make this is a valuable, easy to navigate, and easy to access resource that works for farms and also for people and restaurants wanting to buy local and in season.
Define the organizing categories for the buyers guide (this will become our index/table of contents)
Possible Examples: Farmers Markets, CSAs, Produce (will need subcategories), Meat (will need subcategories) Honey, U-Picks, Nurseries, etc.
How will we ensure all of our local farms, CSAs, food hubs, farmers markets etc. all have an opportunity to be listed
Discuss if this is a print or digital resource,
If printed: how will we cover printing costs?
If digital: how will people find it?
What we call this guide
Date, Time, and Agenda for next meeting
Discuss survey and data collection to support our work
The meeting will be recorded for anyone who is interested in participating but unable to attend in person.
The local buyers guide idea emerged from our February 2026 Local Growers Meeting, you’ll find our meeting notes and agenda here. It was inspired by the 2026 Shopping Guide created by The Weston A Price Foundation (Photo Below). While we’re taking inspiration from this resource we wont be replicating it- we’ll be using it as a jumping off point to create a unique resource that meets the need of our local food community and it will center local growers and farm markets.
Get Info on Future Meetings and Post-Event Meeting Notes
All RSVP’d attendees will receive an email with meeting notes after the event. If you’d like to receive meeting notes but are unable to attend, please drop your contact info here and we’ll be sure to send you our notes and also a recording of the meeting.