Acorn Farmers’ Market & Café – Acorn is moving to a new location

submitted by Ruth VanBogelen, Acorn Farmers’ Market & Café Board

Less than a month ago, the Acorn Farmers’ Market & Café Board of Directors (Acorn BOD) announced that the Patronicity campaign was a success, raising almost $56,000 – and two weeks ago Acorn BOD learned that the MEDC match of $50,000 was approved. The excitement was high for Acorn BOD that the Manchester Community – more than 300 people – had donated to make this happen. But Acorn BOD was also excited because we had begun conversations with the new owners of the Manchester Market building and they asked if Acorn would like to move into their newly-renovated building!

Acorn BOD can now tell Manchester residents that the date has been set for the move. Between Christmas and New Years, equipment, etc., will be moved this short distance. Final touches will happen the first couple weeks in January, and then Acorn will re-open as a bigger store with lots more hours of operation than we currently have (from 12 hours per week to 70 hours or more). More space and more parking are obvious advantages. Let’s talk about the financial advantage, since Acorn is a non-profit which is managed by an all-volunteer Board and really belongs to the Manchester Community.    

Note – we hope all this equipment fits! We have a store layout designer verifying it all will fit!

The table above provides a list of the big items that were deciding factors for Acorn BOD. We hope this information explains the decision to move locations so close to the grand opening! We truly feel that this new plan will allow us to better carry out our mission as a non-profit business.

Acorn BOD and the owners of The Manchester Market (new name of the building) meet weekly to talk through how this new venture for them and for Acorn can serve the community better. Our goal is to work together to make the shopping experience “wonderful” for customers.

There is a lot to be done in less than 3 months for Acorn BOD, and soon we’ll be sharing a list of volunteer opportunities – stay tuned.

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by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and founder of the Manchester Mirror.