The Oak Park Farmers Market will not return this spring after organizers announced the program is shutting down.
The Food Literacy Center, a nonprofit that has operated the market for the past three years, announced Wednesday that rising costs and a dwindling customer base led to the decision.
“Without customers, very few farmers can afford to stay at the market, and without farmers, customers don’t come. It’s a cyclical problem,” said Amber Stott, CEO and founder of the Food Literacy Center.
Since 2010, the Oak Park Farmers Market has provided fresh fruits and vegetables to residents of Oak Park, a neighborhood considered one of Sacramento’s food deserts—areas with limited access to affordable, healthy food.
After the market was shuttered by NeighborWorks Sacramento in 2022, then–Assemblymember Kevin McCarty and Sacramento City Councilmember Caity Maple helped secure a $500,000 state grant to revive the market, with the Food Literacy Center stepping in as the operator.
This time there wasn’t a strong case to pursue additional state funding.
“You can only make it work if people are going to show up,” Maple said. “It’s really hard to continue making that argument—especially as the city and the state are both facing budget deficits—when there just isn’t demonstrated demand.”
Stott said many vendors were not reaching the sales benchmarks needed for the market to be viable, often earning less than the $1,000 minimum per market.
Despite the initial investment, economic realities made the market increasingly difficult to sustain. Stott said it cost roughly $10,000 per week to operate the market every Saturday from April through November, while reaching about 40 EBT customers per week.
“That’s a cost of about $250 per EBT customer,” Stott said. “That math is very hard to swallow when you’re using donor dollars and only reaching 40 EBT customers a week.”
Stott said low turnout may be attributed to rising food prices and tighter household budgets, with families increasingly relying on other food assistance programs rather than spending money at a farmers market.
“When you don’t see people coming and participating in the program you’re providing, it often means you don’t have the right solution to the problem,” Stott said. “We’re hearing from those families that they need free food right now.”
The closure represents a shift in focus for the Food Literacy Center in how food insecurity is being addressed in Oak Park, but will still serve their mission of providing fruits and vegetables to children.
“Only 4% of kids are eating their daily vegetables, and the result is that we are seeing very high rates of diet-related diseases,” Stott said. “We have a 40% child obesity rate in the Sacramento area. The kids who are the most at risk for these diet-related diseases are the kids who don’t have enough to eat at home.”
The Food Literacy Center said it will continue serving the community through its elementary school–based programs, which it says are more cost-effective and reach more families. The programs include hands-on cooking, nutrition education, and food distributions, serving up to 800 children per week at a cost of about $16 per student.
Other nearby options remain available, including the Midtown Farmers Market on Saturdays, the Sunday market at 8th and W streets and local food pantries operating throughout the neighborhood.
Still, local vendors say the loss of the market will be felt.
Liliette Freeman, co-owner of Pittador Brews Specialty Teas and Coffee, described the market as “instrumental” to both her small business and the surrounding community.
For vendors like Freeman, the loss goes beyond sales. It marks the end of a place where small businesses built relationships, tested products, and became part of the neighborhood’s weekly rhythm.
“It allowed us to establish a customer base, get our brand out there, but also serve a community that just needed a little something extra,” Freeman said.
She added, “It feels like a sad ending to a potentially growing market that was becoming very vibrant and very active.”
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