After a popular trial run on early April this year, the Poho Market is set to return to Tai Ping Shan Street (outside Teakha) on Sunday, May 7. The community-driven market is currently running a new crowdfunding campaign, inviting individuals who are passionate about supporting this community project, where running costs are allocated for renting stall furniture for setting up the event.

The new crowdfunding campaign is a new idea, and a first for Hong Kong’s farmers’ market, which relies strongly on visitors’ participation and purchases on seasonal produce to keep it running. Having successfully set up the Tong Chong Street Market in Quarry Bay with two popular pop-up events earlier this spring, Janice Leung Hayes of Honestly Green, which initiates both the Tong Chong Street Market and now the Poho version, is hopeful for the new Poho Market to grow with the community’s involvement. “The only costs of setting up the market are the rental fees of basic stall furniture, a cost that we believe is reasonable and achievable through crowdfunding,” said Leung-Hayes.

The idea of crowdfunding, according to Leung-Hayes, is also a good opportunity to attempt community supported agriculture (CSA), where participants agree to prepay farmers for future produce harvest. Farmers can better predict the volume of produce to grow, with less waste and develop a sense of ownership of the market between farmers and visitors. Participants for the Poho Market crowdfunding campaign can sign up with various amounts to support the market and keep it running every first and third Saturdays of each month until December 2017, with the event starting on May 7 as the first event of the summer.

For more information and contributions to the event, please click here