7/12/2023

Letter from Farmer Nate:

Folks, I'm reaching out for your help. There has been a terrible tragedy within our farmers' market community and we are gearing up to help. As you may already know, on Monday, July 10th in the wee hours of the morning the historic brick building at the Broad Street Market in Harrisburg caught fire and has been destroyed. Not only has one of the oldest market houses in the country been lost, but this fire has also displaced over 40 market vendors. That's an immediate displacement and loss of income for hundreds of people, not to mention the capital investments made by all the small business owners. 

When I heard the news on Monday morning, I was immediately sick to my stomach because what you don't know is that just earlier this year we were in negotiations to purchase a very large market stand within this building. This tragedy could have happened to Breakaway Farms soon after making a very large financial investment. Frankly, this fire would have set us back significantly not only from the lost capital investment but also from the lost continued revenue. It would have displaced our staff, having a significantly negative effect on their livelihoods and that's just scratching the surface when you think about what goes into dealing with insurance and trying to rebuild if that's even an option. So, to say that we are thankful that we chose not to proceed with the purchase is a major understatement. And now, we are in a position to help. Our business is strong and we care deeply about the farmers' market community and our goal is to raise money to give directly to the vendors affected. You may remember last year when we created the Ukrainian Relief Sausages to aid those directly impacted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. With your help, we were able to donate over $20,000 to refugee relief efforts. Let's do it again for our market community!

We have created the Broad Street Market Vendor Relief Burger! It's an 8 oz grass-fed beef burger that's filled with FIRE-Roasted Red Peppers, CHARRED Onions and SMOKED Gouda cheese. Forgive the references to fire-related ingredients if you must. It's intentional. We tend to be pretty candid at Breakaway Farms and choose to address the issues at hand straight on. Let's fight fire with fire, so to say. 

Now, I'm going to ask you to pay $10 for this burger. That might sound like a lot of money for a single burger, but we're trying to help these folks out and I challenge you to go out to eat for a 1/2 pound burger for only $10. 

Let's all take a bite out of the pain that these vendors are currently feeling. 100% of proceeds will go directly to the vendors affected. Breakaway Farms will donate the cost of the ingredients and the labor to create and sell the burgers. We simply ask that you show up and buy them. We'll have about 100 burgers for this weekend with more to come. If you buy nothing else from us this weekend, please buy lots of these burgers!

We're also happy to take cash donations above and beyond the requested amount for the burgers, just like we did before for Ukrainian refugees… click below to help out in all ways.

Shop with us at the following market locations this week & help us support our farmers’ market community!

The Lancaster Central Market - Easton Farmers’ Market - Emmaus Farmers’ Market

Thank you all. You truly are the best and what drives us to continue with our good work. 

Peace be with you,

Farmer Nate