The Hoedown benefit celebrates our community and our producer-only market that welcomed over 50,000 visitors last year. This biannual event features food grown by our own vendors, prepared this year by Executive Chef Bill Clifton from Henlopen City Oyster House. Here's your chance to have a farm-to-table feast, including a beer and wine open bar, with all of your friends who support our weekly market, and then to kick up your heels to the live band Michael Shockley and the Moonshiners. A highlight of the evening will be a live auction giving you a chance to bid on some really spectacular offerings such as a personal guided tour of the Winterthur estate and gardens led by the Curator and Director of the Horticulture Department for 25 years; a week for four at a luxurious apartment centrally located in Ottawa; a party and a tour for you and 20 of your best friends at the Dogfish Head Craft Brewery; a week at a spectacular home in Key West and much more. Funds from the 2014 Hoedown helps us operate our market so that our 36 local farmers and vendors can grow, support their families, and build the local food movement in Delmarva.
The funds also help to support and expand our educational and charitable programs including:
- scholarships to farmers to attend sustainable conferences;
- farmers market workshops for farmers to help educate them on how to be successful at farmers markets demonstrations and others every Saturday during the regular season;
- providing additional "Bonus Bucks" for customers using SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (commonly known as food stamps);
We are dedicated to bringing fresh, local food to our community. Please join us on April 26 in support of this mission.