Building a Lively NeighborFood Market in Leelanau
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Rooted in Community. Cultivating Connections:
Support the Lively NeighborFood Market!
Imagine a place where farmers and families can mingle amid shelves of delicious, plentiful, locally grown food. A space not just for buying food but for growing connections, nurturing health, and fostering sustainability. That place is coming! It’s the Lively NeighborFood Market , and you can help bring it to life.
Our Mission is to grow the local food economy right here in southwest Leelanau County. We want to support and highlight a connection between the customer and the farmer.
We are Jim and Kelly Lively, 30+ year residents of Empire Township, and we're embarking on a journey to transform a 19-acre commercial parcel six miles east of Empire, into a vibrant community food hub where fun, food and families can all happen together!
Our friends at Venture North helped tell our family story here, and we were recently featured in a nice story in the Leelanau Ticker.
Our passion stems from years dedicated to food and farming advocacy - Jim with Groundwork Center ’s food & farming program and Kelly's tenure at Cherry Capital Foods and as a flower farmer.
We're pouring this passion into the Lively NeighborFood Market, aiming to make it an all-electric, solar-powered facility that supports our region’s hard-working farmers and food producers.
Meet Mel & Fell
Not only are we building out a farm market, but we have established a commercial kitchen that is already licensed and running! Local caterers Mel&Fell are currently cooking out of the kitchen, and will be selling their pre-packaged food in the Market when it opens. With over half a century of combined experience at the best restaurants in Michigan and a lifetime of hands in the dirt, Mel and her fella Tim are the go-to team for flavorful meals fresh from the farms of Leelanau County. Mel&Fell offer gourmet catering services to the greater northern Michigan region, infusing your events with local, unique, and healthy flavors to keep guests raving for months after. Mel&Fell also offer meal delivery services to Empire, Glen Arbor, and beyond, bringing the best of Leelanau County right to your doorstep.
When you give to our GoFundMe, $5,000 will help to outfit our commercial kitchen with necessary equipment to support Mel&Fell and the prepared foods in the market.
What Your Support Will Do:
- Create a local, fun market to find all your favorite farm and food products under one roof
- Provide a steady source of revenue for our neighboring farmers to continue to grow our food, and expand their operations
- Help build-out the kitchen to meet the needs of those utilizing the space
- Demonstrate a fully electric, solar-powered building in our community
- Welcome all members of our community by accepting SNAP and Double Up Food Bucks, and partnering with Food Rescue, Empire Food Pantry, and others
- Build a family-friendly community space for outdoor, farm-related activities.
Why We Need Your Support:
Transforming this dream into reality requires more than just vision; it needs the support of people like you. We've laid the groundwork by renovating our 33-year old building with a new metal roof, parking, landscaping, and establishing a licensed commercial kitchen.
We are now at a critical juncture - preparing to upgrade and enclose a 1,600 sq. ft. open-air portion of the building into an energy-efficient, functional market space to open by summer 2024.
We have completed the plans and permits - but the journey ahead is filled with challenges:
- Enclosing the open-air covered pavilion with two new walls, insulating the concrete slab, adding new electrical service, and commercial windows and doors to meet fire, building, and energy code standards
- Installing multiple refrigerators, freezers and shelving for food in the market
- Marketing, signage, and point-of-sale software;
- Adding kitchen equipment, including a floor stand mixer, and cookware for electric induction cooktop range
- Installing a solar array on our large south-facing roof to support our all-electric facility;
To make this a reality, we've launched this GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign. Our goal is to raise $25,000. This will help fund the kitchen and market space renovation and help us launch our market by Memorial Day 2024.
Be Part of the New Movement Around Local Food
A market that focuses exclusively on local food is a new, ‘old’ idea. We all know that before the industrialized food system, refrigeration, and cheap travel, all communities worked collaboratively to source products as closely as possible. This idea has already taken hold in other communities, including Ann Arbor, in a market called Argus Farm Stop. We’ve been fortunate to get lots of ideas and support from our new friends at Argus about this collaborative model that supports local farms - and we’re confident we can modify it to work in our community.
Join Our Community Movement
Your support is not just a donation; it's a seed planted for a healthier, more connected community. We’re a mission-based business that will benefit us all. Like an old-fashioned barn-raising, let's build something extraordinary together.
We're excited to share this journey and invite you to participate in the Lively NeighborFood Market story.
With gratitude,
Jim, Kelly, and the Lively NeighborFood Market Team
Fundraising team (3)
Jim Lively
Organizer
Empire, MI
Mae Stier
Team member
Kelly Lively
Team member