Farmers Market Scavenger Hunts – A Recap #vanfarmers
This past holiday weekend, the Foodtree team spent two days at our local farmers markets celebrating food, farmers, and food lovers. It was a really exciting few days for us, especially because all of you were so excited about the app and the vision we have for this company!
Each morning we set up a tent (solar-powered on Sunday!) and sent food lovers around the market looking for beautiful food photos, as well as where those foods were from. Everyone who participated got a gift and afterwards we awarded prizes for Most Photos and Best Photostream.
The app hit the App Store last Wednesday for Vancouver and Boulder, Colorado…both cities have vibrant farmers markets in full swing right now. Early Saturday morning, the pictures started flying!
App Demos, Giveaways, Fun!
The Foodtree Team was displaying real-time images of the photos being taken in Vancouver (we also checked in on Boulder). People couldn’t believe all the geeky tech at a farmers market! Our tent was bustling with inquisitive food lovers and locals who’d downloaded the app and wanted to give it a test drive. We offered demos, helped people install the app, and even loaned out iPhones for people who didn’t have them.
Farmer participation was incredible…before the event we’d spoken with a group of the vendors about being a part of our scavenger hunt, but when we showed up and started setting up, vendors began stopping by asking to join in the fun.
We were obviously happy to expand the photo scavenger hunts to include their tents.
Special Thanks
- Our prizes for Most Photos came from the Roaming Dragon Truck team, who are a staple at the markets, and serve up some seriously delicious food. Look at the photos taken of their truck and menu here. Thanks again guys.
- Of course we’d like to expressly thank the Vancouver Farmers Market team, who have been truly wonderful these last few weeks as we prepared to celebrate the vendors and our new app. You were a huge element of this celebration’s success, and welcomed an unusual promotion of local food into your markets last weekend.
- Steamclock Software, a local development shop run by Allen Pike, were instrumental in building the app itself and are forever highly recommended by us.
- EATart, a local art lab that promotes sustainable energy via art, was behind our solar powered panels on Sunday, powering all the laptops, iPads, and iPhones.
In addition, we ran two special scavenger hunts on Saturday with some of the hardest working citizens and food advocates in town.
- The first involved Councillor Andrea Reimer, Chef Robert Clark (of C Restaurant among others), Tara McDonald (ED of Vancouver’s Farmers Markets), Amanda Gibbs (previously Museum of Vancouver’s Dir. of Engagement), and our very own CEO Anthony Nicalo.
- The second involved a few of the many wonderful food advocates we have in this town; Mark Busse (Foodists), Annika Reinhardt (SocialBites), Kaishin Chu (DashofFood), and Mijune Pak (FollowMeFoodie).
Everyone involved took a ton of photos and gave us great feedback on the app, vision, and experience.
Thank you for being a part of such a special event for us.
Oh, and a Special Thank You to Mother Nature, who has made it clear that she’s a big fan of Foodtree! What unexpectedly gorgeous weather this weekend!
Run Your Own Scavenger Hunt!
The response to this weekend was incredible, and a lot of fun for everyone.
The magic was the connections made. Photo hunters noticed foods they’d never heard of. Chefs were introduced to farmers. Food lovers deepened relationships with particular vendors, and farmers saw their products being shared and celebrated all over the community.
We want to spread that excitement! Ever since the event we’ve been working on a do-it-yourself package to enable anyone to recreate the event we put together. Don’t worry…solar power and flatscreens aren’t required:) Stay tuned!
Unlocking the App in Your Community
Since the event we’ve received lots of requests from farmers markets, farmers, and food lovers about including their locations and connections in the app. We’re hearing you, and we’ll be clearly outlining exactly how to unlock cities and get markets/vendors into the app really, really soon.
If you have questions or would like to see yourself (or your community) in the Foodtree app, email us (friends@ foodtree dot com) or drop into our community forums to get started.
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