About Us
The Fondy Food Center cultivates wellness in the Lindsay Heights Neighborhood and the Greater Milwaukee Area by focusing on issues of healthy food access and economic opportunity. We operate local farmers markets throughout the year, provide access to land, resources and support to local farmers, and work with partners to build a better food system for our community.
Our Story
The Fondy Farmers Market has been connecting Milwaukee residents to local food, farms, and farmers for over a Century.
Fondy Food Center (Fondy) was established as a non-profit in 2000 on Milwaukee’s North Side as a response to a Food Security and System Assessment that identified a high concentration of hunger, poverty, and dependence on emergency food pantries in the area – and the key role that the Fondy Farmers Market played. Over the past decade, Fondy has grown from one farmers market to an organization creating strategic food systems change with multi-sector partners. Fondy now operates year-round farmers markets – the Fondy Farmers Market and the Milwaukee Winter Farmers Market – that supported more than 110 vendors and tens of thousands of shoppers in 2020, even in the midst of the COVID 19 pandemic.
In 2010, Fondy started the Fondy Farm Project, which assists low-resource farmers in gaining access to the land, resources, and support they need to operate a successful business. And in 2015, with multi-sector partners, Fondy launched the Milwaukee Farmers Market Coalition – a city-wide healthy, local food access and advocacy initiative that connects low-income consumers to Milwaukee area farmers markets. Fondy also partnered with the City of Milwaukee to build an award-winning eco-park and community gathering space next to the Fondy Farmers Market in 2017 and now works with a variety of partners to activate the space. All of our programs are interconnected and work together to build a better food system equally accessible to all.