A Massachusetts Farmers’ Marketi s 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. The data are current as of June 5, 2023. DAR will provide updates to MassGIS at regular intervals each year.

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.

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.

General farmers’ market information can be found at http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/agr/markets/farmers-markets/. 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@state.ma.us. To obtain the most current data, contact Evan Marshall by email at Evan.Marshall2@mass.gov