After a near-decade run, an outdoor community market that prided itself on homegrown, homemade and handmade goods in Lehighton has come to an end.

Hosted by the Lehighton Downtown Initiative, the Lehighton Downtown Farmers Market has been discontinued, said borough Mayor Ryan Saunders, who also serves as president of LDI.

Most recently, Saunders said the event took place every Saturday from May through October in the borough’s Lower Park along Constitution Avenue.

But due to diminished interest the decision to no longer host the farmers market was made, he said.

“Over the last couple of years, we’ve noticed a decline in community support, patronage, foot traffic and also the vendors,” Saunders said. “The vendors were struggling because it wasn’t very fruitful for them.

“Our farmers market had not been financially stable for the vendors, for the produce farmers. It just wasn’t enough for them to sustain continuing to do it.”

It was a difficult choice to make, Saunders said.

“We got together late last year, really talked about it,” he said. “Ultimately, we took a lot of the feedback we’ve gotten from the vendors in recent years, (and) our vendors were complaining that nobody was coming to the farmers market to buy stuff, and the community said you don’t have enough vendors.”

But, Saunders said, “We were unable to get more vendors because we were unable to get more customers for them. Ultimately, it was decided that we were going to discontinue the farmers market and maybe hit the reset button.”

The farmers market debuted in the spring of 2017 to much fanfare.

“When we first started it, it was fantastic; people were getting out of their houses, walking around, engaging vendors, the farmers, it really had a great community aspect and community feel to it,” Saunders said. “I think 10 years later, that spark is kind of gone; it had seemed that more people felt it was an inconvenience that is was there.

“It’s disheartening; the members of LDI, this was not a decision we took lightly, we are an organization that prides ourselves in giving back to the community,” he said. “We took this very hard; it was a difficult decision, and it was tough to make that call, but unfortunately, we felt that was the only thing left that we could do.”

Over the years, Saunders noted they transformed the event in an attempt to best try to meet everyone’s needs.

He said they had it in the Lower Park, then took it down to the bypass along Sgt. Stanley Hoffman Boulevard, and then brought it back up to Constitution Avenue and the Lower Park.

“We even added a winter market for a couple years,” Saunders said. “So we’ve done as much as we possibly could from an organization standpoint, and it just didn’t grow.”

He pointed out that in 2020 during the height of COVID, the farmers market flourished.

“Because we were outside, we were able to remain open for the community, which was very successful for our farmers and our vendors because our community needed a place to shop,” Saunders said. “It was a great benefit for the community, and it was a good resource at the time; and we were very proud to continue to be able to provide that for our community and for our farmers and vendors to continue to thrive.”

At its zenith, he said the farmers market would attract a good 20 or more vendors and added most recently, that number had fizzled to well below a dozen.

As time wore on, Saunders said the online presence unquestionably hindered the event.

“Everything is a couple clicks away, it’s so easy for people to just log on to a specific website and a couple clicks later have your order delivered to your door,” he said. “So, I think our farmers market may have been a casualty of that as well.”

Saunders said they customarily met with their vendors at the beginning of each year to ask them what changes they would like to make.

“We’ve put our heads together, tried different things, special events to try to encourage the community to support the farmers market on a regular basis,” he said. “And unfortunately, we’ve kind of run out of ideas.”

Saunders said the LDI hasn’t entirely ruled out a comeback for the farmers market down the road.

“We’re definitely optimistic if an opportunity comes up later on, we would love to bring it back,” he said. “We loved having it and providing it for the community.”

Saunders added that several businesses were able to use the farmers market as a stepping stone.

“We were part of them growing their business,” he said. “That was a hell of an accomplishment.”