OPEN FORUM LED BY CCE SPECIALIST LAURA BIASILLO ON FARM SAFETY PLAN REQUIREMENTS—MONDAY, AUGUST 24TH, 2020

This instructional forum on developing safety plans for farmers/vendors- mandated by recent NYSDAM guidelines- was led by Laura Biasillo, Agricultural Economic Development Specialist with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Broome County and member of the Cornell Farm Safety Plan Task Force. No matter the size of your farm, whether you’re a crafter, or vendor part time at the market, having a safety plan in place is a requirement.  Please see the materials and video below for helpful information regarding this topic.  

View the Presentation: FM COVID-19 Safety Plan [PDF]
NYS COVID-19 Farm Safety Plan [PDF]
OFM - COVID-19 Reopening Safety Plan Template [WORD]
Cornell Cooperative Extension: Helping New Yorkers Thrive [LINK]

FIFTH WEEKLY OPEN FORUM — APRIL 30, 2020

Since many farmers markets across the state had begun to open their Spring markets under the new safety guidelines, this forum was to facilitate open conversation in which questions, comments, and ideas could have been fielded with the group. We invited a panel of market directors who have given their valuable insights on previous calls to help respond to participants’ questions.

View the Chat Transcript [.txt]

FOURTH WEEKLY OPEN FORUM — APRIL 23, 2020

This week’s discussion centered around using online sales platforms. Many markets have begun to use online sales to allow customers to preorder. There are a number of these platforms available. We heard from Ellen Pope, Director of Otsego 2000, Steve Ridler, Market Manager of Troy Waterfront Farmers Market ,and Jon Zeltsman and Dacotah Rousseau from Down to Earth markets in Ossining, NY about their experiences with the platforms Shopify, Local Food Marketplace, and the WhatsGood app.

View the Chat Transcript [.txt]

THIRD WEEKLY OPEN FORUM — APRIL 16, 2020

The Open Forum’s main topic for discussion was crowd control — How is your market adhering to COVID-19 guidelines for social distancing and safety?

We were joined this week by Suzanne Flaum, Manager of the Kingston Farmers Market, Pascale Le Draoulec, Market Director of the Hastings Farmers Market in Westchester county, and Jessica Douglas of GrowNYC Greenmarkets.

View the Chat Transcript
View Kingston Farmers Market’s Powerpoint regarding social distancing and market safety measures!

SECOND WEEKLY OPEN FORUM — April 9th, 2020

For this forum, we invited George Billard, Manager of Barryville Farmers’ Market in Sullivan County to speak about The Victory Garden Project developed for his market — a program featuring co-op style bundling of goods and produce directly from market farmers pre-packed according to themes such as The Vegetarian and The Brunch Bag. Orders are then available for a scheduled curbside pickup.

View the chat transcript [.txt]
Visit the Barryville Farmers’ Market webpage!

FIRST WEEKLY OPEN FORUM — April 2nd, 2020

View the chat transcript [.txt]
View information regarding the Ag Workforce “COVID-19 and Your Product Farm” Webinar, as well as find quite a few helpful PDFs and links.