Amanda Lukas
Happy #NationalFarmersMarketWeek! Throughout the week we are highlighting and celebrating all of our amazing farmers. #NFMW lasts through August 7th, and we have a lot of fun things planned. Today we are featuring Amanda Lukas, Findlay Market’s Outdoor Market and Sustainability Manager.
To many, Amanda is a familiar face around the market for all of her hard work supporting our #FindlayFarmers and being our fearless leader when it comes to the Market’s sustainability efforts. Amanda’s latest achievement was launching our Residential Composting Program!
Amanda is a big advocate for supporting local farmers because of the impact they have on the community and the environment.
“Farmers markets are an essential business and create community by connecting the consumer to their food and who is growing it,” said Amanda. “Farmers sell their product directly to the consumer and cut out the middle guy. Whereas, a lot of the other food chains in the United States, and the world, are relatively long.”
Not selling produce directly to the consumer takes a lot of resources, according to Amanda. That is why buying food from local farmers reduces the amount of carbon-based energy needed in transportation.
“We’re getting food from across the country, or from a different country entirely, and that takes a lot of resources. When you’re buying food from local farmers, you’re decreasing that food system,” said Amanda. “The amount of energy to get that food decreases, and it also helps keep farmers more accountable on how they’re growing their items.”
Shopping at farmers markets can also give you more “bang for your buck”. According to Amanda, the shelf life of local produce is significantly longer than that of the grocery store counterparts, which leads to less food waste and less impact on the environment.
“A lot of the food we get in the grocery store has been in motion for weeks, so their shelf life is really limited,” said Amanda. “They’ll last in your fridge for maybe a week or two, and then you're more than likely going to have to throw that food away because it's rotten. If you're getting food from a farmers market, a lot of times, that food was just picked no more than a few days ago.”
Amanda said her favorite part about our #FindlayFarmers, specifically, is the community aspect.
“Being able to have that name-to-name basis is important,” said Amanda. “I’ve been able to visit a lot of the farms, and I have a relationship with all of the farmers here.”
According to Amanda, being a farmer is a huge commitment, and the reason most farmers markets are only open until the early afternoon is because the farmers have to go right back to farming.
“A lot of people don’t realize how hard farmers work,” said Amanda. “They are some of the most hardworking individuals that you will ever meet.”
Stop by The Shed today to see what all of our fabulous #FindlayFarmers have to offer! We will be giving out free samples from our farmers from 10am-2pm.