While Toledo officials tout the Swayne Field Pop-Up Produce Market as a win for fresh food access, local farmers and advocates say they were shut out of the bidding process.
Farmers Sonia Flunder-McNair of Urban Wholistics and David Johnson of Johnson Produce Co., both based in Toledo, said they were not made aware of the opportunity.
“We had no idea about anything. We were not included in applying for the RFP — just totally excluded,” Mrs. Flunder-McNair said of the request for proposal process the city uses to solicit, evaluate, and award contracts to outside vendors…