Last fall, a HAFA farmer came outside from their home in Saint Paul to find a hefty fine on their truck that they used to transport fresh, local produce to the farmers market.
After almost six months of working with Council Member Russ Stark’s office, HAFA finally got a parking exemption for urban farmers and their commercial box trucks that are used to haul fresh produce to and from the farm and farmers markets! In May, the Saint Paul City Council voted to allow the farmers to be exempt from this parking restriction for the months of March to November since those are the peak farming months.
Before this exemption, farmers’ box trucks could be ticketed and impounded at fines upwards of $1,000 if they were parked in residential streets. At the end of the day, farmers are driving back and forth from the farm, the farmers markets and their homes and the trucks are rarely even parked. However, the farmers wanted to follow the law and did not want to risk getting ticketed.
Still, this exemption only allows one truck per residence. We are happy that the Council has asked for more research to be done into the possibility of allowing two trucks per residence because we believe this limits the growth of urban farmers.
This month, we are celebrating by helping farmers apply to take advantage of the ability to park their truck during the growing season and we look forward to continuing to make our voices heard in Saint Paul to encourage our local food economy and small farmers to thrive.
We are dedicated to advancing the prosperity of Hmong farmers through cooperative endeavors, capacity building and advocacy. HAFA was started and is led by family farmers. Organizing is in our DNA.