This summer, three MFRE students will complete their Graduating Project with Vancouver Farmers Markets to convert raw historical data into useful information, develop and analyze surveys, and study the impact of phasing our single-use plastics.

Founded in 1995 as a non-profit society, Vancouver Farmers Markets (VFM) has grown to become one of Canada’s leading farmers market organizations. This summer, the VFM has three projects that MFRE students will tackle as part of their Graduating Project. The projects consists of the following:

 

Project #1 : Financial Data Interpretation for Decision Making

 

Image
Nguyen portrait

The objective of this project is to build a system to interpret historical financial data of vendors and markets collected by the Vancouver Farmers Market throughout several years. Among other things, this project will prepare data to be used for operational, financial, & marketing analysis, and will develop and implement financial analysis and data presentations tools/techniques for management decision making. This systems will support several efforts such as an analysis of the impact of removing single-use plastics from the marketplace.

Project #2 : Survey Design & Evaluation

 

Image
Oliver portrait

This project's objective is to evaluate current customer and vendor satisfaction survey methods and results, and design a new survey that builds upon the results. The endeavor will assess current surveys, summarize its historical data, and provide an in-depth review of non-respondent shoppers and sampling data concerns. It will then work with current staff to define additional objectives, define and tests a new survey and determine appropiate methods to analyze results. 

Project #3 : Waste Reduction Strategy Assessment

 

Image
Amy portrait

The VFM is moving towards implementing a zero waste strategy which includes eliminating all single use plastics. This project will assess the needs, impact and significance of this project from several angles such as sources & options for single use plastics of various forms, vendor current use of alternatives to single use plastics, consumers willingness to pay and accept alternatives, cost impact on vendors and potential breakeven for bulk market purchases, and a review of the life cycle and impact of the top recommendations.