Campaign Day „Experience Your Local Market“
Patron Cem Özdemir opens the Thanksgiving Local Market in Stuttgart

On October 1, Stuttgart celebrates its traditional Thanksgiving local market in front of the Stiftskirche on Schillerplatz. The event is also the final highlight of the 2022 "Experience your Local Market" campaign year, which is the German sector of an international movement called "LYLM – Love your Local Market".

Representatives of the LYLM Committee will also be in attendance. The committee, alongside their German colleagues, is holding its fall meeting as an international conference in Stuttgart City Hall on Friday. Thomas Lehmann, member of the board of GFI Deutsche Frischemärkte e.V. and managing director of Märkte Stuttgart GmbH, expects guests from England, France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece.

After an exchange with international representatives, the patron of the campaign, Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture Cem Özdemir, will officially open the Thankgiving local market with a welcome address at 9:30 a.m. This will be followed by the thanksgiving service with speeches by the Mayor for Finances and Economy, Thomas Fuhrmann, and State Farmers' Association Vice President Roswitha Geyer-Fäßler at 10:00 a.m. Afterwards, Pastor Monika Renninger and Deacon Uwe Renz will celebrate the Thanksgiving service in front of the church.

Attending citizens can expect a vivid event including the sale of bags and baskets for charity, informational and promotional booths as well as a round table discussion of national and international guests on the topic of local markets.

Federal Minister Cem Özdemir explains: "I am looking forward to the Thanksgiving local weekly market in my hometown of Stuttgart as well as the exchange with the European market stakeholders. Local markets are places of diversity and encounter. At the markets, people from different generations and cultures come together in their neighborhood to run their errands and exchange ideas. The future and promotion of the numerous local markets in Germany is a topic that is very close to my heart because they manage to bring life to our city centers. When it comes to climate and nutrition, local markets have always scored highly in comparison to other shopping options. Local markets support the small-scale local economy, secure jobs and use the potential of markets to host events and community-building projects beyond the market. They are, thus, an institution that stands for overall social sustainability in ecological, economical and social terms."

Background: The campaign, which is led by the federal association GFI Deutsche Frischemärkte e.V., is the German sector of an international movement called "LYLM - Love your Local Market". It has been a firm fixture on the street market calendar in Germany for the past 8 years and unites over 400 local markets in Germany's metropolitan regions. Through joint activities it tries to highlight the indispensable role of local markets for urban society. More than 4,000 markets in 19 countries in and beyond Europe are taking part in these celebrations every year. The German festivities run from May until Thanksgiving in October. The 2022 campaign runs under the motto „MARKET.ENCOUNTER“.
 

The centre of fresh foods for over 700 years: On the local market on Schillerplatz, below the Stuttgart Collegiate Church, 25 traders are offering their products thrice a week. The local market at the market place in front of the town hall is always taking place at the same time. All citizens are, thus, offered the full range of regional groceries, flowers and plants.


Cem Özdemir, the Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture, has taken over the patronage of "Experience Your Local Market" in 2022.

For further information, please see:
[»] www.erlebedeinenmarkt.org
[»] www.facebook.com/erlebedeinenmarkt

Press contact
Frank Willhausen
Telephone: +49 (0)178 4256738
[»] frank.willhausen@frischemaerkte.org

GFI – Gemeinschaft zur Förderung der Interessen der Deutschen Frischemärkte e.V.
Board member Thomas Lehmann
c/o Märkte Stuttgart GmbH
Langwiesenweg 30
70327 Stuttgart
Telephone +49 (0) 711 48041-0
[»] thomas.lehmann@maerkte-stuttgart.de
[»] www.frischemaerkte.org