Evanston realtor Jackie Mack established the Commission Mission Award several years ago. It's a simple and generous thing. Jackie has non-profits in Evanston register over the summer, and then people are asked to vote for their favorite. The voting has begun for this year's award, and goes through September 20.

Once the votes are tabulated, the top 6 vote-getters will receive a percentage of one of Jackie's September commission checks (thus the name).The prizes range from $5000 to $500, and it goes without saying that any award will be much appreciated.

Friends is registered and we're happy to report that although we haven't reached the top 6, we've climbed the ranks and currently sit at #8 in the tally, with 10 days left in the voting.

If you haven't already voted, we're hoping you'll consider our mission important enough to support. You can vote (once only!) at this address: https://jackiemackrealty.typeform.com/to/Cigbmhkv. And you can track the results by clicking here.

Kudos to Ms Mack for her generous support of Evanston's non-profit community. And thanks to you for your support!

Yesterday, FEFM board members Vikki Proctor, Nancy Graham and Emily Guthrie joined Myra Gorman, Market manager, in a meeting with Mayor Biss to discuss the idea of moving the Downtown market to Fountain Square. The information we shared included:

The Mayor clearly understands the important service of our market to small, local farms, to Evanston shoppers and to LINK families. Myra Gorman spoke about the many aspects requiring her weekly efforts to conduct the market. We emphasized that our market safely opened on time during the early days of Covid, a time when area markets remained shuttered. At the conclusion of the meeting FEFM's neutral position was restated. Our interest is in the integrity of the market, one we don't wish to see diminished. The Mayor expressed his gratitude regarding the information provided.

We'll be sharing more comments in next week's newsletter, and if you have thoughts about this topic, please send them to us at info@evanstonfarmersmarkets.org. One responder last week chided us for apparently "taking a side" by publishing Emily Guthrie's comment in full. We'll offer a contrasting viewpoint next week. You'll see that supporters of the notion of moving the market are as passionate and thoughtful as those who are concerned about the wisdom of such a move. As you can see from Vikki's reporting, we shared everyone's opinion with Mayor Biss, and we'll continue to be sure that every concerned citizen has an opportunity to make their feelings known. In the end, we're all friends of the Evanston Farmers Market.

The Evanston Roundtable reported on the death of Reverend Zollie Webb, pastor of Friendship Baptist Church. Just over a decade ago, Zollie Webb was the market manager for the Downtown Evanston Farmers Market, and he was instrumental in the formation of an organization to support and improve the market's operation.

That organization was Friends of Evanston Farmers Market, and our involvement in rewriting the market ordinance, the development of the Link Match Program, and our other activities was supported by Zollie whole-heartedly. In fact, Link cards were first accepted back in 2010 under his management. Things would simply not be the same today without Zollie's leadership a decade ago.

Read the Roundtable story by clicking here. Evanston NOW's obituary is here.

After last week's long note regarding Link, you deserve a little brevity. Your response to our request for financial help in maintaining the Link match of $25 in the face of heavy usage this season was outstanding, and we are hopeful that you will maintain that pace.

It seems inevitable that Friends will supplant our current level of support for the match with some of the funds allocated for next season's match program. We are hoping that your generosity will minimize the impact of this season's needs so that we can continue to support all the families and individuals who depend on Link at the farmers market.

Click the JUST25+ logo above to donate right now, and click here if you would just like to know a little more about SNAP, Link, and what Friends does to support them.

If you need the details of place, time, and the guidelines under which the market is run, we've updated the information all over our website to reflect the details of this year's market. Click here to visit the update page, From there, you'll can visit other pages on the site for everything you need to know about the market.

We do our best to keep the info in this newsletter and on our website up-to-date. You can also keep up with info direct from the source by liking the Evanston Markets Facebook Page. or by visiting the city's farmers market page. For information provided on our own website, click here.