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    MARKET INNOVATION

           Making Lemonade with COVID-19 Lemons

           By Beth Dooley
           Photos by Tiffany Alexandria of Choochoo-ca-Chew

           When  COVID-19  hit,  demand  for local  food  skyrocketed  as   Started by Sara George in Wabasha, the Farmers’
           shoppers sought closer connections to where their food came   Market Hubs expanded to eight markets in 2018 through a
           from and were increasingly worried by thinning store shelves   joint initiative of Renewing the Countryside, the Minnesota
                                                                   Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, and the MN Farmers’
           and disrupted supply chains. Even though farmers’ markets were   Market Association. While originally set up to aggregate
           deemed essential businesses, some customers were anxious   products from multiple farmers for sale to institutions (e.g.
           about shopping in person. Fortunately, the Rochester Farmers   schools, hospitals, nursing homes, caterers, restaurants),
                                                                   Jessica Joyce, Rochester Farmers Market Manager at the time,
           Market offered a solution.                              saw the opportunity to use the existing system to address
                                                                                         challenges presented by COVID.
                                                                                         “We took the infrastructure and
                                                                                         flipped it for individual retail sales,”
                                                                                         says Joyce.
                                                                                             On March 21, the market
                                                                                         offered its first drive-thru pick-
                                                                                         up. Instead of a few wholesale
                                                                                         customers placing large orders, now
                                                                                         many individual customers could
                                                                                         purchase orders for their homes.
                                                                                         That first Saturday, about 120
                                                                                         customers purchased nearly $5,000
                                                                                         of local products from 17 farmers.
                                                                                             Since then, another 30 farmers
                                                                                         have added their products to the
                                                                                         online market. Now customers
                                                                                         can order fruits, vegetables, meats,
                                                                                         dairy products, bakery items,
           The Rochester Farmers Market drive-thru in Graham Park at the Olmsted County Fairgrounds.   honey, flowers, and more online
           Customers place orders online (rochfarmmkt.org/shop) by Wednesday at 11:00 PM prior to the    and pick them up on market day.
           market for pickup between 9:00-Noon or delivery between 10:00-2:00 on market Saturdays.  “It was an adjustment for some of
                                                                                         our farmers,” says Mary Glenski,
           Drive-thru market                                       Rochester Farmers Market Manager. “But they found [the
                                                                   new system] was easier than they’d initially thought.”

           Within a week of Minnesota’s governor issuing an executive
           order closing restaurants, bars and public gatherings, the   Expanding customer base
           Rochester Farmers Market launched an online ordering and
           pick-up option for their customers. They could do so, in part,   By June, the market added regularly-scheduled, open-air
           because they already had an online ordering platform and the   markets, welcoming customers using protocols to protect
           appropriate licenses in place—a result of their participation in   both farmers and shoppers, including everyone masked and
           the Farmers’ Market Hub project.                        distanced. Signs encouraged people to make liberal use of the
                                                                   hand washing and sanitizing stations.
         42  FEAST! Local Foods Magazine

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