Grace United Church’s bake table sold out with nearly two hours left in its annual festival market on Saturday, but the church said it needs every dollar just to cover a budget that runs at a loss each year.
Volunteers sold donated produce, jam, chutney and baked goods on the sidewalk outside the Victoria Street church in Niagara-on-the-Lake and donated antiques at an estate sale inside.
Leslie Woodward, a church member and market organizer, said the market is Grace United’s biggest fundraiser of the year. The church spends every cent of the proceeds it receives, she said.
“The church operates normally at a deficit because churches are very expensive and church congregations are shrinking and shrinking,” Woodward said.
Grace United also gives money to Caribbean farmworkers and Newark Neighbours.
“We can’t do the work for the community and give outreach to other groups unless we have the funds,” Woodward said.
Heinz Probst, a church volunteer who has farmed in NOTL since 1960, grows most of the produce, collects donations from other growers and makes the jam with longtime member David Greaves.
He said his truck was empty and only a few baked goods remained with an hour and 45 minutes still to go.
Probst, who has done the job for decades, said he had begun to weigh whether to keep going.
“It’s a lot of work. It really is a lot of work, putting it all together, driving here, driving there and doing all that,” he said. “I’m getting to that age where I’m thinking of giving it up.”
His fiancée and friends’ daughters staffed the table with him this year, and Probst said their help kept his part of the market running. He said adults between 18 and 30 rarely attend services, so few younger members can replace volunteers who age out.
Pauline Miller, church council chair, also said the aging congregation made it harder every year to find people to run the event.
Inside, Woodward priced donated antiques including elk-bone knives from Sheffield, England, listed at $40 and valued at about $120. She said regulars phoned each summer to confirm the market was on, and rain on market day cut sales deeply in the years it fell.
Probst said storms flooded his fields twice this summer and the drain crossing his farm overflowed its banks for the first time since his family bought the land.
He blamed part of the runoff on subdivisions across Concession 4 in Virgil, though he said rain on this scale would have overwhelmed almost any drain.
Looking ahead to the fall, Grace United is looking forward to hosting its annual Christmas baskets sale in November.
