Fresh Take Blog

In this Farmer Feature, Little Wild Things Farm discusses how they have stayed resilient in the COVID-19 era.

For farmers markets across the country, the 2020 market season has been one of endless changes, challenges, and uncertainty. FRESHFARM has been committed to operating markets safely throughout the pandemic and has worked tirelessly over the past six months to keep markets open. Despite the drastic changes we have had to make this season, the farmers markets continue to provide a sense of normalcy and even joy for shoppers across the region.

The Pop Up Food Hub’s Farm Stands, which for the past five seasons have created retail outlets for fresh produce in traditionally underserved neighborhoods, are an important component of the Food Hub’s distribution model. The farm stands are a community-powered model for bringing fresh, local food to neighborhoods that may not be able to support a fully-fledged farmers market. Despite the challenges of a much pared-down season, the farm stands are arguably even more important this season than in the past.

Cooking, gardening, eating, and learning are the tenants of the FoodPrints program. So, last spring, when confronted with the seemingly impossible task of transforming these experiences from in-school programming to at-home learning, the FoodPrints team quickly collaborated to develop flexible and adaptable models, allowing students to continue garden and food education, discover that they could transfer these skills to their homes, and continue to stay connected to a program they value.

FRESHFARM has developed an open-source tool called the Market Tracker to track, measure, and evaluate data from each of our nearly 30 markets every week. We aim to eventually offer the Market Tracker as an open-source tool and database to farmers market organizations across the United States.

Thanks to new partnerships, Pop Up Food Hub grows to serve hundreds of Virginia families. But there’s still work to be done.

Lyft is facilitating 6,4000 home deliveries of fruits and vegetables from FRESHFARM to families in need through Lyft’s Essential Deliveries program.

Hugo shares an update on the steps FRESHFARM is taking to address racial justice in our organization and food system at large.