Carrboro Farmers’ Market UNC Capstone Final Report
Creators: name: Robertson, Madison
name: Qiu, Paddy
name: Sandor, Gaby
name: Duguid, Isabelle
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2025

description: <p>Bridging academic learning with community partnership, a group of public health graduate students spearheaded an experiential Capstone project to support the local Carrboro food system. Belle Duguid, Paddy Qiu, Madison Robertson, and Gaby Sandor are second-year Master of Public Health students in the Health Behavior and Health Equity concentrations at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). As a core element of the program, students complete a year-long Capstone project where they partner with a local organization to address real-world public health challenges and build community (Landfried, 2025). The student team was paired with the Carrboro Farmers&rsquo; Market (CFM), to fulfill their Capstone requirement. CFM has maintained a longstanding relationship with UNC since their origin, as the Market was organized by the Agricultural Marketing Project and a UNC Public Health Graduate Student in the late 1970s (<em>Mission &amp; History</em>, n.d.). As a continuation of their partnership, CFM requested a Capstone group to help develop a strategic plan that will guide future development of the Market. As tasked by their preceptor and manager of CFM, Maggie Funkhouser, the student team coordinated research with Market vendors and customers to identify challenges and opportunities for growth at CFM to support future leadership decision-making.</p>
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<p>The student team produced six deliverables to gather a wide variety of insights and produce data-driven recommendations for CFM leadership: 1) a literature review (see page 5); 2) a qualitative summary report (see page 16); 3) a quantitative summary report (see page 26); 4) an infographic (see page 41); 5) a final presentation (see page 42); and 6) a final report (this document). Students conducted the literature review from September to October 2024 to keep the CFM staff and Board of Directors up to date on the best practices and developments in farmers markets across the U.S. and to inform key topics to explore in the two subsequent deliverables. Students then conducted interviews and focus groups, and distributed an open-ended survey to CFM Members in December 2024 to assess current Market experiences, goals for business growth, and recommendations for CFM, summarizing findings in a qualitative summary report. To include the customer perspective, the student team distributed surveys among CFM customers in February 2025 to examine customer demographics, motivations for shopping at CFM, and their alignment with CFM values. The results were collected and analyzed in a comprehensive quantitative summary report. To summarize key points from the first three deliverables, students developed an infographic, outlining their research methods, major findings, and next steps that leadership could apply to address identified challenges. Students then created and facilitated a presentation to CFM Board Members in April 2025, highlighting key findings and recommendations from the four previous deliverables. The final deliverable is this final report, which was created in April 2025 to thoroughly outline the methods and findings of each Capstone deliverable.</p>