COVID-19 Resources for Farmers

Posted on April 3, 2020 by Taylor in Business, Community Development, Farmers Markets, Farming Resources, Financing, Food Safety, Food Systems, Funding, Internet Resources, Local Food, Marketing, Publications, Rural Development, Small Farms // 0 Comments

COVID-19 Resources for Farmers List

Reports estimate that local and regional food supply systems could lose up to $3.1 billion just between March and May this year. While these times are undoubtedly filled with new stresses and hardships, we are also hearing that the demand for local food is skyrocketing and you – our nation’s farmers and marketers – are stepping up to the challenge and serving more families by the day. Below is a listing of resources for farmers during this time of uncertainty an business instability. There are so many things happening now that it is impossible to be totally comprehensive, but this list includes links to several documents and pages with constantly updated lists.

AFT Farmer Relief Grant Program – This program will award farmers with cash grants of up to $1,000 each to help them weather the current storm of market disruptions caused by the coronavirus crisis. Initially, eligible applicants include any small and mid-size direct-market producers. These are defined as producers with annual gross revenue of between $10,000 and $1 million from sales at farmers markets and/or direct sales to restaurants, caterers, schools, stores, or makers who use farm products as inputs.

How the CARES Act will support relief to farmers – keep up to date with federal relief efforts through regularly analysis from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition’s blog and action alerts.

For grants, loans or legal support to help farmers through this pandemic, check out the Financial Resources, Grants and Other Support to Build Resilience from Cornell Small Farms Project.

A Readiness Assessment for Continuity of Farm Business – This open-source checklist developed by PASA and Penn State Extension helps farmers develop a business continuity plan to adapt to and support contingency planning during the pandemic.

Future Harvest CASA has published a document on COVID-19 Safety Protocols For Food Distribution & Purchase. A variety of other COVID-19 Food Safety Resources are available as well:

Disinfectants for use against COVID-19
The Farmers Market Coalition’s blog post about COVID-19 and farmers market safety can be found HERE.
DIY hand sanitizer
Greenmarket NYC producer protocols
OSHA guidelines on respiratory protection
Cleaning and sterilizing digital devices

Direct Sales Software and Training: Farmers have been propelled into direct, online sales. The National Young Farmers Coalition has put together a handy resource listing the names, features and prices of direct sales software platforms. Find it here. And check out the following resources with the direct links below:
Barn2door
Cropolis
CSAware
Farmers Web
Farmigo
GrazeCart
Grown By
HarvestHand
Harvie
Local Line
LocallyGrown
Local Food Marketplace
Local Orbit
MarketMaker
Open Food Network
Reko
Shopify
WhatsGood
Woo Commerce

Building Farm Resilience in this crisis – Cornell Small Farms Program recently launched a curated resource page to support the farming community.

Land for Good is hosting a page that offers many Farm and Food System Resources amid COVID-19.

The New Entry Sustainable Farming Project is hosting an editable document with a long list of COVID-19 resources for farmers. If you want to see their list, or know of a resource you think should be added, you can access NESFP COVID-19 resource document here.

Our friends at Farm Aid have a list of COVID-19 resources for farmers. You will find many of the same resources on this page, but there is too much for me to list here, so it may be useful to check out some of these other lists as well.

Other Farm Resources – There are many other farm organizations with excellent COVID-19 resources for farmers and food producers during the crisis, here are a few:

Handling Payments

Don’t forget to use the same precautions handling payment as you use throughout your operation.

Have one person handle transactions and one person the products. If you’re a one-person show, only accept credit cards, checks, or exact cash.
If possible, try to have two people at your stand/pick-up, one person handling transactions and one person handling the products. The person handling transactions should wear gloves and should change their gloves if/when they touch anything other than the money. Hands should be washed before and after glove use.
Avoid touching cash and coins at all costs. Encourage your customers to pay using a card, pay pal, etc. If they pay by card type the numbers in yourself to avoid touching the card and deactivate the signature feature.
If customers are paying by check or cash, have a box people can place their money in. Round your prices up to the nearest dollar to avoid coins. Do not handle the contents of the cash box for 24 hours or more.
Consider creating prepackaged boxes customers can pick up and go with.

Find tons more farming resources of many kinds at https://www.beginningfarmers.org/additional-farming-resources/