Thinking Inside the Box – Making Healthy Food Accessible with Curbside/Drive-Thru (Contactless) Models at Farmers Markets During COVID-19

Presenters

Farmers Market Leaders! Remember when everyone was talking about alternative delivery models and how to reduce contact at farmers markets? Let’s bring that conversation back!

Are you interested in learning to operate a curbside/drive-thru (contactless) model at your market? COVID-19 has impacted almost every aspect of farmers’ market operations. From wearing masks to social distancing, keeping shoppers and vendors safe has created new opportunities for innovation.

“Box programs” or curbside/drive-thru models have popped up across the nation to provide small and mid-sized farmers with an additional opportunity to sell their products and continuing to elevate farmers markets and make healthy food accessible to communities.

Largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, farmers market customers – including those in COVID-19 high-risk groups – are looking for lower-touch options.

In this webinar, market operators using this model will present on:

How to run a curbside/drive-thru (contactless) model in a farmers’ market, including offering SNAP/EBT payment and nutrition incentives (the match provided on SNAP benefits).

Participants will also get knowledge on best practices for:
Logistics and operations
Securing funding and staffing/volunteers
Compliance with COVID-19 health and safety guidelines

Attendees will leave this webinar feeling inspired and supported to run your own box program, or with a better understanding of how viable the program may be for your market.

Click the image below for the recording of the webinar.

Access presentation slides here.
Webinar Q&A
Min: 09:55 Land Acknowledgement/ Essential Workers Acknowledgement
Min: 18:00 About the Nutrition Hub
Min: 19:30 Presenter line-up
Min: 20:40 Presenter #1, Cristina Berthelot, Crescent City Farmers Market, New Orleans, LA
Min: 35:32 Presenter #2, Angie Warkentin, Visalia Farmers Marker Åssociation, Visalia, CA
Min: 51:48 Presenter #3, Megan Kenney, North Coast Growers Åssociation, Arcata, CA
Min: 1:06:05 Presenter #4, Ruth Arhelger, Rochester Farmers Market, Rochester, MN
Min: 1:18:37 Presenter Q and A

Online SNAP Basics: Nutrition Incentive Hub and NGAF Technical Assistance Center Webinar

Webinar Recording

Online SNAP Basics Slides

Online SNAP FAQ

Webinar: Raise Money and Build Community with Engaging Online Fundraising

July 29. 2020

Presentation slides

Panelists:
Caroline Fiore, Farm Aid Development Manager
Nora Chovanec, Texas Farmers Market Deputy Director

In this webinar host by the Farmers Market Coalition, Caroline Fiore, Development Manager at Farm Aid, will guide market leaders on a variety of techniques and strategies for online fundraising, including hosting effective and engaging online events. Community members are looking for ways to support local food systems and the essential services of farmers markets. Implementing online fundraising events and campaigns can be a great way to fund additional costs of PPE, market staff, and strengthen the financial sustainability of your market.

Participants will learn how they can engage with donors in their community, increase funding for their markets, and make giving online fun for everyone!

We’ll also be joined by Nora Chovanec of Texas Farmers Market, who will share her experience running a successful online fundraising campaign to cover increasing costs during the pandemic.

Market operators will leave the workshop with an understanding of how to raise funds to support their markets via a variety of online methods–just in time for National Farmers Market Week! The presentation will wrap up with an open discussion and Q&A.

Watch the Recording

WEBINAR: Attract Food Vendor Sales and Set Safety Expectations with an Easy to Build Social Media Plan

Watch the recording

Download the accompanying resources

Strength in Numbers: Leveraging Data and Technology for Nutrition Incentive Programs

Presenter: Alysa Moore: Wholesome Wave Georgia

Do you want to use data to impress funders and show the impact of your region’s nutrition incentive program? Maybe you love the IDEA of data but don’t have an excess amount of time, effort, and money to pour into new data management systems. 

Collecting, storing, and analyzing quality data for nutrition incentive programs is a daunting initiative for many organizations, especially organizations that lack the time, money, and people power to do it well. Data doesn’t have to be intimidating! 

In this webinar, attendees will learn how one small nonprofit approaches data management using low-cost technology that simplifies collection and analysis of nutrition incentive program data. 

Wholesome Wave Georgia (WWG) is a small nonprofit that has been administering nutrition incentive programs in Georgia since 2009. In this webinar, WWG’s Program Manager, Alysa Moore will share how they’ve transitioned nutrition incentive data collection from cumbersome spreadsheets to an online, user-friendly database. Their use of new, low-cost software and tools has simplified program management and reporting for their small staff and the farmers markets, farms, and grocery outlets they work with. Learn how your organization can do the same. 

Attendees will learn why there is a need to move beyond spreadsheets, what tools and databases may be useful to program administrators and questions to ask when looking at data management solutions. Alysa will also walk through examples of how WWG uses Salesforce to manage data for several of their programs.

Click the image below for recording of the webinar.

Presentations and Q&A can be found here:

• FMC and Hub Introduction
• Main Presentation
• Q&A

HEAL Food Alliance Webinar: Sowing the Seeds of Liberation

US agriculture’s roots in colonization and enslavement mean that Black and Indigenous and communities of color still have limited access to capital, financial support, and markets—this is changing, slowly but surely, thanks to the work of food and farm organizations, leaders and communities that are dismantling racism and white supremacy, and imagining alternate ways to be in relationship with land, nature and each other. Hear from some of these leaders and HEAL members in this webinar!

Maine Federation of Farmers’ Markets: Webinar on Vendor Practices during Covid-19

Farmers’ Markets have dramatically changed their layout and rules to fall in line with the Governor’s emergency declarations and the Maine Department of Agriculture’s guidance for farmers’ markets. This webinar is an orientation for Maine farmers’ market vendors to learn what best practices they must be following. Topics covered include: Pre-ordering, booth setup, payment processing, product handling, and how best practices pertain to every aspect of your booth’s operations.

Growing Your Grassroots: Employing Local Community Leaders for SNAP & Incentive Outreach

Presenter: Food Navigator and Fresh Link Ambassador programs

Interested in engaging community members with outreach, promotion, and education for your market’s nutrition incentive program? Experts will present on two different community outreach programs: FreshLink Ambassadors and Food Navigators that employ community members to spread the word about how to access fresh, healthy, locally grown food. 

FreshLink

FreshLink Ambassadors is a peer-to-peer marketing and outreach approach to spread the word about farmers’ markets to support the use of SNAP and nutrition incentives. Developed and evaluated through community-engaged research at Case Western Reserve University, Prevention Research Center for Healthy Neighborhoods in Cleveland, Ohio, the FreshLink Ambassador approach leverages social connections, trustworthiness, and capacity of community champions who raise awareness about and build social connections to farmers’ markets located in their neighborhoods. The FreshLink Ambassador Technical Assistance team now seeks to share learnings with individuals, organizations and communities interested in implementing this approach in their local context.  

Participants in this webinar can expect the following:

• Learn more about the core components of the FreshLink Ambassador approach.
• Understand the impact FreshLink Ambassadors has on individuals, communities, and farmers’ markets.
• Hear testimonials from a former FreshLink Ambassador and Farmers’ Market Manager about their experiences and the benefits of this peer-to-peer outreach approach.

Food Navigators

The Michigan Farmers Market Association in collaboration with the Michigan Fitness Foundation created the Food Navigator program which operates in farmers markets that accept food assistance benefits and are located in underserved communities. Food Navigators work to increase access to fresh, affordable food and help shoppers eat healthy.

Click the image below for recording of the webinar.

Presentations and FAQ can be found here:

• FMC and Hub Introduction
• Main Presentation- Food Navigator
• Main Presentation- Freshlink Ambassador
• Q&A

Webinar: Pickup and Order Options at Farmers Market: Create Resilience, Not Legal Vulnerability

WEBINAR: As Farmers Markets add curbside pickup, take advance orders, and offer bundled market purchases, customers are getting fresh, local foods in the midst of a pandemic. But, these innovations can also bring legal risk as well. With some advance planning, market managers can address these risks and create a program with strength beyond COVID-19. We’ll cover issues including increased liability risk, shifting insurance needs, potential licensing obligations, and concerns under site agreements. Your webinar presenters have expertise in farmers markets, legal obligations, and insurance. Join us to learn where legal risk lies and what to do to resolve it.

Presenters: 

• Rachel Armstrong, Farm Commons
• Darlene Wolnik, Farmers Market Coalition
• Emily Spiegel, Center for Agriculture and Food Systems Vermont Law School
• Chris Van Leeuwen, Food Liability Insurance Program

Read more about the importance of farmers market insurance and mitigating risk during COVID in our interview with Chris Van Leeuwen here. 

ILFMA: 10 Tips for Marketing Your Farmers Market During COVID-19

WEBINAR: Market managers are presented with the difficult task of marketing their market’s upcoming opening while also making sure they’re communicating to vendors, staff volunteers, and shoppers a myriad of new rules for operating a market during COVID-19. So, how do market managers make it all happen…and still sound hopeful and excited for the upcoming season? In this webinar, ILFMA will cover 10 tips for marketing your farmers market that you can incorporate into your PR and communications efforts right now.