HLFM thanks community after 20th market season
The Historic Lewes Farmers Market celebrates its 20th anniversary with this cake from pastry chef Dru Tevis.
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The Historic Lewes Farmers Market (HLFM) celebrated its 20th Anniversary Market Season in 2025 with special community events and at-market celebrations all year long.
Organizers this week said, “The HLFM is grateful for the unbelievable support for the last twenty years from a community that continues to celebrate local small family farmers and the mission to help feed its neighbors fresh, healthy food.”
They thanked the Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, a part of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices PenFed Realty, “for their strong commitment to the mission of supporting farmers and feeding the community as the Market Champion Sponsor for the Historic Lewes Farmers Market. Additionally, the HLFM thanks Crooked Hammock Brewery for allowing the use of their parking lot each week in the summer for the Wednesday Market, providing small farmers another opportunity to grow their businesses and a more accessible Market location for customers to shop at during the week.”
Kicking off the anniversary year was the Celebration of Local Farms Dinner event at Lewes Oyster House with a menu highlighting local farms, seasonal ingredients and market vendors. Friends and supporters of the HLFM enjoyed a meal prepared by chef Sean Corea and the Lewes Oyster House team to celebrate the HLFM’s 20-year milestone and raise funds for their farmer support and food access programs.
Fourth of July weekend marked the anniversary of the very first HLFM Saturday Market back in 2006, so the Historic Lewes Farmers Market welcomed customers, volunteers, vendors and all of its friends — new and old — to the market for its 20th “Birthday” Party. The day was celebrated with photos of memories from the last 20 years, balloons and cakes from Brûlé Bakery, Kahiau’s Bakery, Old World Breads, the Point Coffee House & Bakery, and Station on Kings.
At the end of the summer market season, 160 friends of the market were able to enjoy seasonal flavors from local food grown by small farmers prepared by chef Bill Clifton and toasted 20 market seasons and HLFM successes at the Brunch with Friends at the Lewes Yacht Club.
Through these celebrations, the HLFM recognized some significant milestones of their work supporting local small farmers and bringing fresh food to more people in the community. Over 20 seasons, the HLFM has had more than 650 Saturday and Wednesday Markets, with more than 830,000 customer visits, “making the market a special community gathering place in Lewes.”
By hosting over 130 farmers and producers at the market over 20 years, and awarding 95 farmer scholarships totaling more than $42,000, they said, the HLFM has helped preserve 7,000 acres of farmland each year. As Delaware has lost 24 percent of vegetable farms from 2017 to 2022, “The HLFM understands the necessity of saving the small farmers that are left and helping grow new farmers each year.”
The Historic Lewes Farmers Market has had more than 500 volunteers, advisory board members and board members spend more than 36,000 volunteer hours at the market and helping with various other HLFM events and programs these past 20 years.
“There is no question why the Historic Lewes Farmers Market was voted America’s Favorite Farmers Market in 2011 and has consistently been voted Delaware’s Favorite Farmers Market by the American Farmland Trust and Best Farmers Market in Delaware by Delaware Today—more than 15 awards overall!
As a non-profit organization, the Historic Lewes Farmers Market continued its programs to help feed people in this community. The HLFM remains the only farmers’ market in either Sussex or Kent counties that accepts SNAP benefits. The market started accepting SNAP in 2013 and introduced its Bonus Bucks matching program at the same time. That means that when a SNAP customer comes to any HLFM market, the HLFM matches up to $20 so that the customer has double the money to spend at the market, bringing more fresh food into the homes of families that would not otherwise have access to it.
Through the program, the HLFM has helped more than 1,700 SNAP customers at the market, helping farmers with $67,000 in sales, including almost $33,000 of Bonus Bucks spending, which is the donation that comes directly from the HLFM.
The HLFM continued its Food Pantry Purchase Program, in partnership with Epworth UMC Food Pantry, as well as its Gleaning Program, to help fill the need for fresh food in the community while supporting farmers and preventing food waste. In 2025, these HLFM food access programs provided almost $35,000 of local farm food to hungry families in Sussex County. The total comes from HLFM direct donations, customer purchases at the market and farmer donations at the market, collected and taken directly to local pantries at the end of every weekly Saturday Market.
This year also marked a special milestone for the HLFM Gleaning Program, as the HLFM surpassed more than $100,000 worth of fresh food collected through the program in its history, “demonstrating the incredible generosity of Market farmers over the last two decades.”
“The Historic Lewes Farmers Market thanks the entire community for their unwavering support for over 20 years, helping make the HLFM the largest producer-only farmers’ market on the Delmarva peninsula and a place for all to gather each Saturday morning.”
For more information about the Historic Lewes Farmers Market and their mission, go to www.HistoricLewesFarmersMarket.org. The HLFM market will return for its 2026 Season Opening Day on Saturday, May 2, 2026.
