After a successful holiday marketplace, FUSION hosted its first Summer Marketplace to benefit local families experiencing homelessness.

On July 27, FUSION hosted event in the parking lot of Poverty Bay Cafe. The event featured 19 booths with vendors selling everything from trinkets and jewelry to dried meat. Megan Anderson, FUSION’s marketing and community outreach manager, described the Summer Marketplace as a little baby farmers market.

In lieu of a booth fee, 5% of all sales from each booth went toward FUSION’s programs, which center on helping unsheltered families with children become self-sufficient. Additionally, Anderson said proceeds go toward other endeavors, such as family enrichment activities for the kids and summer camp.

“The marketplace was kind of a new idea that we had. We did a holiday market back in December, and it was really fun,” Anderson said. “We had great feedback from customers, great feedback from vendors that were in attendance. So, we figured that we could bring it to a bigger scale in the summertime when we’ve got a little more room, and we can put it in the parking lot.”

Anderson said the FUSION boutique, located next to Poverty Bay Cafe at 1108 S. 322nd Pl., was also open and having a sidewalk sale. She said art, furniture and other products were out on the sidewalk in the featured sale. Additionally, FUSION had its own booth alongside the City of Federal Way.

Sarah Cooke, the owner of Olympic Clay, a Tacoma-based business selling clay jewelry, was one of the original vendors of the FUSION markets. Cooke said she and FUSION first worked together when they did the first Holiday Marketplace in December 2023. Following that, Cooke thought a bigger summer market was a good idea.

“The executive director of FUSION, he just really wanted to do something to kind of bring the community out, get more people into the cafe, and get the cafe and FUSION a little bit more exposure while also kind of giving back to the community and providing a sort of event that people could come to and shop at and buy Christmas gifts and stuff like that,” Cooke said. “So that was kind of why we decided to do that market, and then it was really successful, and we thought, why not do a bigger one in the summer?”