Teams of high school students from around Canada and the world competed last week for the best pitch for a new permanent location for the Sackville Farmers’ Market.
Six teams of SHAD program students shared their ideas with a panel of local judges last Thursday evening in Tantramar council chambers. SHAD is a month-long enrichment camp for high school students held at 26 university and college campuses across Canada, including Mount Allison.
The event was hosted by Tantramar director of community and corporate services Kieran Miller, and the judging panel included Tantramar CAO Jennifer Borne, Sackville Business Improvement Area president Sahitya Pendurthi, Tantramar recreation programmer Jessica Wilson, and Sackville Farmers Market manager Danielle Latour.
Six different teams of students made their pitch, tackling not only the question of what a permanent market site should look like, and but also where should it be located.
The night’s winning pitch proposed a new building at 63 Main Street, the site of a former Ivring Gas Station, across the street from the Bill Johnstone Park, the current summer home for the market.
The lot at 63 Main Street is owned by Arcadia Sites Limited, an Irving-owned real estate holdings company.
The proposed building would include a multifunction recreation space with one wall that would open up to the outside, to help maintain the summer market atmosphere. The building would including a rock climbing wall, studios for dance and exercise, and a community kitchen space.
All pitches included multipurpose space proposals, with recreation and cultural space possibilities.
Other proposed locations included the vacant lot at 3-5 Bridge Street (with a pitch for a three-story building), the old foundry site at 67 Lorne Street, and the Lansdowne Field, which Mount Allison has slated for paving and converting to a parking lot in the fall of 2025.
The team that was named runner up in the pitch competition proposed adding a second floor to the Sackville Public Library, and making use of that new indoor space, along with the library’s basement, during winters and inclement weather.
Hear what some SHAD students had to say after their pitches:
Market manager and pitch panel judge Danielle Latour said the students had “well researched ideas that really took into consideration community opinions and a need for additional market and rec space.” Latour said the SHAD students, “really covered important topics that we all kind of want to address with this new multi-use facility.”
The group attended a Saturday market in the park as part of their research. They also had limited time to work on their respective pitches.
SHAD student Julia Wu said the students “learned a lot about the economic and social impacts that a farmers market can have… I didn’t even realize that so many high level farmers markets existed,” said Wu, “both in larger communities and in small communities, and how they’re both equally as important and to their respective communities.”
Latour said she’s hopeful that the SHAD project might inject some energy into the discussion about the future of the market. “Any community conversation about it is a positive step forward,” said Latour. “So we can only hope that it’ll help push towards making it a reality.”
In December, Tantramar council unanimously approved a motion from councillor Josh Goguen asking municipal staff to form a committee with local groups “on a permanent multi use facility for the purpose of housing multiple activities and community groups, including a permanent full time location for the Sackville Farmers Market.”
The idea of a multipurpose centre that could be used by the market has been explored before, with staff getting a class D construction estimate back in November of 2021. The cost at the time for a new 11,000 square foot building was estimated at $3.4 million.
