08/30/2026
WINTER MARKET PROJECT UPDATE....NO TOWN FUNDS ARE BEING SPENT ON THE WINTER MARKET BUILDING PROJECT
The non-profit Onancock Farmers and Artisans Market received a grant in 2025 from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) to build an indoor Winter Farmers Market.
This grant is offered by VDACS to support local food production, including farmers markets and agricultural aggregation hubs.
VDACS requires their grant to be administered by the Town of Onancock.
The Town will administer this as a “pass-through” reimbursable grant. The Town will present receipts for completed work to VDACS for reimbursement.
Even though the Winter Market project is not receiving any Town money, the grant funds involved are required to be included as a line item in the Town budget.
This is also a 2:1 matching grant. The $32,000.00 of state-awarded funds must be matched by $16,000.00. Those funds were raised by the Onancock Market from generous supporters.
Upon receiving the grant, the Onancock Market worked with the Town to determine the best location for the Winter Market. The original plan was to use the grant funds to purchase a prefabricated shed to house the Winter Market and place it in the Queen Street Parking Lot.
Early this year, the Onancock Market determined that the plan to house the Winter Market in a prefabricated shed was not feasible because Accomack County commercial building codes required too many costly alterations to the shed.
A new plan was needed. If the Winter Market project is not completed by February 2027, the grant funds will expire.
The Fosque Family, who has supported the Market since it was founded in 2012, offered space in the commercial building they are restoring at 20 Market Street for the nominal fee of $1 a year.
VDACS assured the Onancock Market that permissible grant expenditures included, among other things, renovations or construction on an existing building. The Onancock Market proposed a modified plan to use their grant funds to renovate the space designated for the Winter Market in the 20 Market Street building.
In June of 2026, VDACS approved the modified plan.
The Onancock Market plans to open the Winter Market in December.
https://www.vdacs.virginia.gov/pdf/AFID-infrastructure-grant-guidelines.pdf
